Korea's growth to be slower but better balanced

Data published today show that Korea’s GDP growth slowed in Q3. The economy will stay on a slow track for some time and in 2011 overall now looks set to expand at a sub-trend pace. Nevertheless, the upswing should gain renewed traction during the course of next year while inflation will probably climb further. The Bank of Korea’s (BoK) base rate remains very low and we still expect a 25bp hike to 2.5% by year-end, with more monetary policy tightening to come in 2011.