The GDP of South Korea has decreased by 2.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, marking thus the biggest fall since the 1998 crisis, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday, citing the Bank of Korea
SEOUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2020) The GDP of South Korea has decreased by 2.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, marking thus the biggest fall since the 1998 crisis, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Thursday, citing the Bank of Korea.
The South Korean economy has not fallen so dramatically since the fourth quarter of 1998 when the national GDP sank by 3.8 percent.
Comparing to the first quarter of 2020, the GDP decreased by 3.3 percent in April-June.
"This was largely caused by a sharp drop in exports with the new coronavirus continuing to spread, unlike our expectation that it will likely slow down," the head of the Central Bank's economic statistics office, Park Yang-su, said, as quoted by Yonhap.
According to the released figures, the national exports dropped by 13.6 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, which is the biggest fall since the fourth quarter of 1974.
The global economy is currently facing a wave of recession and turbulence over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
