According to Yonhap News,

Major global investment banks (IBs) have raised their outlook for South Korea's 2025 economic growth, citing its recent tariff deal with the United States, a report showed Wednesday.

As of end-July, eight major global IBs, including Barclays, BoA-Merrill Lynch and Citi, projected that Asia's fourth-largest economy would expand 1 percent this year, up 0.1 percentage point from their median forecast a month earlier, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance.

It marked the second consecutive month of upward revisions by the foreign institutions.

Among them, Goldman Sachs and UBS offered the highest growth forecast at 1.2 percent, followed by Barclays with 1.1 percent and Nomura with 1 percent.

Goldman Sachs noted that the agreement between Seoul and Washington on U.S. President Donald Trump's administration's aggressive tariff scheme has helped ease uncertainties, and South Korea is not in a disadvantageous position compared with other countries.

Last week, South Korea and the U.S. announced a tariff deal under which the U.S. will impose a 15 percent tariff on South Korean imports, down from the initially threatened 25 percent, in exchange for South Korea's pledge to invest $350 billion in the U.S.

In May, the Bank of Korea (BOK) sharply lowered its 2025 economic growth forecast to 0.8 percent amid uncertainties stemming from the U.S. tariff policy and weak domestic demand. The central bank plans to release an updated outlook later this month.


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Source: Yonhap News (August 6, 2025)