World Economic outlook - South Korea Q4 GDP growth 2011 : South Korea's economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter of 2011 from three months earlier as exports weakened amid still fragile domestic demand, the central bank said Thursday.
Real gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, expanded 0.4 percent on-quarter in the fourth quarter, slower than a revised on-quarter growth rate of 0. 8 percent tallied in the third quarter, according to an advance estimate by the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The on-quarter growth was the slowest since the fourth quarter of 2009 when the real GDP grew 0.2 percent. From a year earlier, the real GDP advanced 3.4 percent during the October-December period, down from a revised on-year growth of 3.5 percent in the previous quarter.
For the whole year of 2011, the South Korean economy advanced 3.6 percent, down from 6.2 percent registered for 2010.
Europe's debt crisis and its subsequent global economic slump had a negative impact on exports, which account for more than half of the Asia's No. 4 economy, while domestic demand stayed fragile due to weaker spending both in private and public sectors as well as poor facilities and construction investment.
Exports of goods and services contracted 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter from three months earlier, a turnaround from a 2.2 percent on-quarter expansion in the previous quarter. From a year earlier, exports expanded 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 9.6 percent in the third quarter.
Private consumption turned to negative growth due to a reduction in spending on durables and semi-durables, according to the BOK. Consumption in the private sector shrank 0.4 percent on- quarter in the fourth quarter, with that for the public sector declining 1.7 percent over the same period.
After posting a 0.8 percent on-quarter contraction in the third quarter, facilities investment tumbled 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter from three months before due to falling investment in machinery and transportation equipment sectors, while construction investment fell 0.3 percent on-quarter in the fourth quarter, a turnaround from a 1.8 percent on-quarter growth in the previous quarter.
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