Kim Min-seok, a former prime minister running for the leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea, said the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) sharp upward revision of South Korea's economic growth forecast was an achievement of the Lee Jae-myung administration, pledging to "build a Democratic Party that runs fiercely alongside the government."
"South Korea has recorded the highest growth rate among advanced economies," Kim said in a post on X on the morning of the 9th, laying out his ambitions.
"In its World Economic Outlook released yesterday, the IMF projected our country's growth rate at 2.6%, the highest level among the advanced economies announced," he said. "This is a 0.7 percentage point upward revision from its forecast of 1.9% three months ago." He added, "It also projected next year's growth rate at 2.5%, the highest among advanced economies. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) also raised its forecast for our country's growth this year to 2.6% today."
"It is all the more special because South Korea's growth rate rose sharply despite its heavy dependence on energy imports, at a time when forecasts for both global growth and advanced economies as a whole were lowered due to energy and supply chain shocks from the Middle East war," Kim said. "Increased exports of high-tech industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors played a key role."
"I am confident that President Lee Jae-myung, not content with this, will dramatically strengthen the foundation of growth through the three mega-projects and work even harder so that the warmth of growth spreads to every region and every citizen," Kim said.
