The Asian Development Bank(ADB) has again slashed its 2025 growth outlook for South Korea, just four months after the last downgrade.

The finance ministry said the ADB forecast in its latest Asian Development Outlook report, released Wednesday, that South Korea’s economy will grow one-and-a-half percent this year. 

That’s down from the bank’s December forecast of two percent. 

The ADB had maintained South Korea’s economic growth outlook for 2025 at two-point-three percent through September of last year before marking it down in December. 

The bank cited high interest rates, household debt, political uncertainty and the slump in the construction sector as risks for South Korea. 

The ADB forecast that the U.S.-China trade war will emerge as an external risk for South Korea’s economy. 

Meanwhile, the bank projected that South Korea will post economic growth of one-point-nine percent next year on the back of improved exports of semiconductors with artificial intelligence functions, increased government spending, political stability and expansionary monetary policies.