<Anchor>

The economic growth rate for the third quarter was only 0.4% QoQ. The sluggish growth in the third quarter increased the likelihood that annual growth would be less than 2%.

Reporter Han-ju Han.

<Reporter>

The Bank of Korea says real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.4 percent in the third quarter.

Compared to the same period last year, it increased by 2.0%.

Most experts fell short of 0.5-0.6% QoQ.

The slowdown in the third quarter also led to an emergency of 2% growth this year.

Given that we recorded -0.4% in 1Q and 1% in 2Q, we need to grow 1% in 4Q to achieve 2% annual growth.

However, there are many prospects that it will not be easy because the economic conditions inside and outside the country and the government's contribution to growth are decreasing.

The government's contribution to growth has fallen from 1.2 percentage points in the second quarter to 0.2 percentage points in the third quarter.

The contribution of the private sector improved from -0.2 percentage points in the second quarter to 0.2 percentage points in the third quarter, but the government's contribution was not enough to fill the gap.

The growth contribution of net exports was 1.3 percentage points, which turned positive in one year since the third quarter of last year.

In terms of gross domestic product in the third quarter, private consumption increased by 0.1% and government consumption by 1.2%.

Construction investment decreased 5.2% and facility investment increased 0.5%.

Exports increased 4.1 percent, mainly in semiconductors and cars, while imports increased 0.9 percent.