The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected Korea's economic growth for this year at 1.9%. That is an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point from the outlook in Oct. last year.
The IMF released its World Economic Outlook for Jan. 2026 on the 19th. The IMF issues the global outlook four times a year, in Jan., Apr., Jul. and Oct. Of these, the Apr. and Oct. editions are regular outlooks covering all member countries, while the Jan. and Jul. editions are updates covering 30 major countries, including Korea.
The IMF raised both Korea's projected growth rate for last year (1.0%) and this year (1.9%) by 1 percentage point from the previous outlook. It is seen as a positive assessment that Korea's economy entered a recovery phase after the third quarter of last year.
However, the IMF's growth forecast for Korea this year was somewhat lower than the projections by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2.1%) and the government (2.0%).
◇ Global growth up 0.2 percentage point; U.S. growth up 0.3 percentage point
The IMF put the global economic growth forecast for last year and this year at 3.3%. That is up 0.2 percentage point from Oct. last year, respectively.
For the advanced economies group that includes 41 countries such as Korea and Japan, this year's growth was revised to 1.8%, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous outlook.
By country, this year's U.S. growth forecast (2.4%) was raised by 0.3 percentage point. The revision reflects fiscal stimulus effects, expectations of interest rate cuts, easing of downward pressure related to trade barriers, solid third-quarter results and potential recovery after the shutdown.
This year's eurozone growth forecast (1.3%) was raised by 0.2 percentage point, reflecting Germany's fiscal expansion policy and robust growth in Ireland and Spain. Japan (0.7%) was also revised up by 0.1 percentage point on a positive view of the new government's stimulus effects.
For the 155 emerging and developing economies group including China, India, Russia and Brazil, this year's growth was projected at 4.2%, up 0.2 percentage point from the previous outlook. China was put at 4.5%, up 0.3 percentage point, reflecting fiscal stimulus and the effect of the U.S. tariff deferral, while India was set at 6.4%, up 0.2 percentage point.
Meanwhile, the IMF assessed that "the risks to the global economy remain tilted to the downside." It cited as major downside factors the concentration of investment in a small number of AI and advanced technology corporations, high trade uncertainty, geopolitical tensions and high levels of liability in major countries.
However, it added that if trade tensions gradually ease and countries move to improve medium-term productivity through AI adoption, that could act as an upside factor for the global economy.