South Korea's economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the second quarter of this year than three months earlier despite a slump in exports, central bank data showed Tuesday.
The country's real gross domestic product (GDP) -- a key measure of economic growth -- increased 0.6 percent on-quarter in the April-June period, accelerating from a 0.3 percent expansion in the first quarter, according to an advance estimate from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
Asia's fourth-largest economy has been on a recovery pace since it contracted 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter last year.
On a yearly basis, South Korea's economy expanded 0.9 percent in the second quarter, the same as the first quarter's on-year gain.
The central bank said the second-quarter expansion was led by positive net exports.
Positive net exports increased the real GDP, an inflation-adjusted value of private consumption, government spending, investment and net exports, by 1.3 percentage points in the three-month period.
The country's exports fell 1.8 percent last quarter due to sluggish demand for petroleum products and transportation services. But exports of semiconductors and motor vehicles gained ground.
Imports tumbled 4.2 percent for the quarter, dragged down by a decrease in imports of crude oil and natural gas.
Private spending fell 0.1 percent as expenditures on services declined, while expenditures on goods remained flat at the previous quarter's level.
Government consumption tumbled 1.9 percent due to a decline in spending on social security benefits.
Investment in construction and facilities also dropped 0.3 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.
By industry, agriculture, forestry and fishing jumped 5.5 percent, manufacturing grew 2.8 percent and services went up 0.2 percent.
But the electricity, gas and water supply sector fell 6 percent, and the construction industry declined 3.4 percent.
South Korea's economy has been facing growing uncertainty at home and abroad amid worries that fast monetary tightening in major countries, including the United States, could precipitate a global economic slump.
Earlier this month, the BOK held its key interest rate steady at 3.5 percent for the fourth straight time following rate freezes in February, April and May. The rate freezes came after the BOK delivered seven consecutive rate hikes from April 2022 to January 2023.
The central bank has also trimmed this year's growth outlook for the economy to 1.4 percent from the earlier 1.6 percent as exports are widely expected to remain weak.
For the first half of 2023, the South Korean economy expanded 0.9 percent from a year earlier, higher than an estimate of 0.8 percent made in May, the BOK said.
"To achieve the 1.4 percent growth this year as forecast, the economy has to grow about 0.7 percent each in the third and fourth quarters to reach 1.7 percent growth in the second half," Shin Seung-chul, director general of the BOK's economic statistics division, said in a briefing.
Last year, the country's economy grew 2.6 percent, slowing from a 4.3 percent advance the previous year amid aggressive monetary tightening at home and abroad.
The 2022 growth marked the slowest pace since 2020, when the economy contracted 0.7 percent amid the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Yonhap News Agency