Anchor: A group of major foreign investment banks(IBs) last month raised their growth outlook for South Korea this year, with the country being the only Asian nation to be subjected to an upward adjustment.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: According to the latest report by the Korea Center for International Finance on Tuesday, nine major foreign investment banks(IBs) and economic think tanks revised up their growth forecast for the South Korean economy.

Barclays, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, HSBC, Nomura and UBS projected negative point-four-percent growth as of late May, up from a point-nine contraction in late April.

Out of ten Asian countries, South Korea is the only one that saw its growth projection revised up.

The IBs also made an upward adjustment of next year's outlook from three-point-one to three-point-two percent.

As for the global economy, the IBs revised down their outlook from a two-point-nine-percent contraction in late April to a three-point-seven-percent contraction in late May.

Citi expressed concern over slowed recovery amid uncertainties from the COVID-19 pandemic and persisting tensions between the United States and China.

Earlier, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) predicted the South Korean economy would shrink one-point-two percent this year, should there not be another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the case of a second wave, the OECD forecast negative two-point-five-percent growth.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.