Reuters News Agency has marked down South Korea's projected economic growth for next year due to sluggish domestic consumption and a slowdown in Korean exports to China.

After surveying ten financial organizations, including Citibank and Lehman Brothers, Reuters forecast that the nation's economy would grow 4.7 percent this year and 4.4 percent next year.

The news agency also projected that South Korea's trade surplus would post around 28.6 billion dollars this year, but would shrink to 22.8 billion dollars in 2005.