The International Monetary Fund on Jan. 30 raised its 2024 economic growth outlook for Korea a tenth of a percentage point to 2.3%. Shown are customers shopping for vegetables at a hypermarket in Seoul. (Yonhap News)

By Lee Dasom

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that the national economy will grow 2.3% this year.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance on Jan. 30 said the IMF's 2024 growth outlook for the country is a tenth of a percentage point higher than the fund's forecast in October last year.

The latest projection is higher than those of the government (2.2%) and Bank of Korea (2.1%), while matching that of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Mentioning solid growth in the U.S. and major emerging and developing economies, the IMF forecast steady growth of the global economy of 3.1% this year, up two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous estimate. 

The prediction for the U.S. was 2.1%, up from 1.5%, and that for China 4.6%, up from 4.2%.

The forecast for Japan this year was 0.9%, down a tenth of a percentage point, due to its weakening currency and normalization of "revenge spending."

"With disinflation and steady growth, the likelihood of a hard landing has receded, and risks to global growth are broadly balanced," the IMF said. "Policymakers' near-term challenge is to successfully manage the final descent of inflation to target, calibrating monetary policy in response to underlying inflation dynamics and—where wage and price pressures are clearly dissipating—adjusting to a less restrictive stance."

Every April and October, the IMF releases its growth outlook for the world economy and every January and July, it announces its revised forecasts for 30 major economies. 

dlektha0319@korea.kr