Friday, November 13, 2009

South Korean Economy Grew at an 11% Annual Rate in Q2


Former international merchant banker and Money Morning contributing author Martin Hutchinson notes that South Korea:

  • Grew at an annual rate of 11% in the second quarter
  • Will report a second-consecutive double-digit advance when it reports on Monday
  • Korea’s current account balance once again shows a healthy surplus, and Fitch's said that a downgrade would be unnecessary, and that Korea could expect to run a budget surplus in 2011
  • The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) is up 65% from its low point in December 2008
  • Exports have recovered, largely due to surging demand from China
  • "Korea’s government spending as a percentage of GDP is one of the lowest of the world’s most-affluent developed economies. That means it will be much less of a burden than on the Korean economy than will similar outlays in the higher-spending Japan, United States and European Union."
Of course, Korea might get slammed if and when the Chinese bubble bursts.

Print this post
at

3 comments:

  1. Joe BlowNovember 13, 2009 at 10:59 AM

    This growth is due to China's stimulus. Korea is a very corpratist country. I was blessed to live there for 3 years and enjoyed almost every minute but their problems the "chae-bol" are many times worse than our problem with Goldman's. The Seoul property boom (esp in Gangnam, an affluent area of southern Seoul) is completely screwy. The ROK is a wonderful country, but when the Chinese bubble pops they're going to have some very hard times. I wish them the best.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joe BlowNovember 13, 2009 at 11:07 AM

    Oh, spelling. Should be "corporatist".

    Anyways, here is an article on the business climate in the ROK:

    http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/10/16/200910160052.asp

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 16, 2009 at 11:48 AM

    When speaking about Korea one must remember one important fact, when the rest of the worlds real estate bubble's popped, Korea's didn't. Real estate prices have instead continued to grow and are already far above what any average person could afford. It is likely that when China's bubble pops, it's going to take Korea's with it.

    ReplyDelete

→ Thank you for contributing to the conversation by commenting. We try to read all of the comments (but don't always have the time).

→ If you write a long comment, please use paragraph breaks. Otherwise, no one will read it. Many people still won't read it, so shorter is usually better (but it's your choice).

→ The following types of comments will be deleted if we happen to see them:

-- Comments that criticize any class of people as a whole, especially when based on an attribute they don't have control over

-- Comments that explicitly call for violence

→ Because we do not read all of the comments, I am not responsible for any unlawful or distasteful comments.