By Bernama,
Seoul : President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday that the global financial crisis will reach its peak during the first half of next year, forcing South Korea to suffer its first negative economic growth in a decade.
“On an annual basis, Korea may attain some economic growth, but may undergo economic contraction in the first and second quarters,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted Lee as saying before receiving key 2009 policy briefings from the education and culture ministries at the presidential office.
He added that few countries worldwide will attain economic growth between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, and that the Korean economy will also hit rock bottom in the first half.
Seoul’s finance ministry reported last week that the Korean economy will grow around 3 percent next year despite the global economic downturn, though private think tanks at home have steadily warned that the nation’s economic growth will fall below 1 percent.
Earlier this week, Lee said that the economic crisis will take a turn for the worse next year, and the possibility of an annual economic contraction cannot be ruled out.
At the joint policy briefing session, the president instructed ministry officials to take sufficient policy measures to drastically enhance the nation’s global competitiveness in the education, science and culture sectors in preparation for the post-crisis era.
“The nation’s future economic growth depends on the success of the education, science and culture policies. Failure of these policies will cloud the future of the nation,” said Lee.