According to the United Nations, the South Korean economy is forecast to recover to 2.4% by 2024. Pictured: Pusan ​​Port in Busan, South Korea. (Source: Reuters)

In the report "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2024" released on January 5, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) lowered its forecast for global economic growth this year to 2.4%, down 0.1 percentage points compared to the report in May 2023.

The report predicts that global economic growth will not reach the estimated 2.7% growth rate in 2023 as the economy, especially in developed countries, has slowed compared to a year earlier.

The UN's forecast is somewhat pessimistic compared to the 2024 global economic growth forecast of 2.9% given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its October 2023 report.

Looking at this year’s growth forecast by region, the US is revised up 0.4 percentage points to 1.4% from the previous report. Japan is at 1.2% and China is at 4.7%. Both countries are revised up 0.2 percentage points.

Meanwhile, the growth rate of the European Union (EU) was cut by 0.3 percentage points to 1.2%; the UK also reduced by 0.7 percentage points to 0.4%. The growth rate forecast for emerging countries was also reduced by 0.2 percentage points from the previous estimate to 4.0%.

The South Korean economy is forecast to recover to 2.4% in 2024. This is a more optimistic figure than the 2.1% forecast for 2024 given by the country's central bank in November 2023.

Regarding the Korean economy, the UN report said: "The decline in private consumption reflects a decline in real wages as inflation continues to remain high.

Despite tight monetary policy and rising financing costs, private investment has begun to recover in 2023, contributing to an improved growth forecast for 2024.

The report also predicts that global economic growth will increase slightly to 2.7% in 2025, but this will still be lower than the pre-pandemic global economic growth rate of 3.0% (2019).