Thursday, January 16, 2003
Koreans are likely to be subjected to worsening economic difficulties this year, with the nation's so-called "economic misery index" for 2003 marking a substantial rise from last year, a report warned yesterday.
According to data compiled by the LG Economic Research Institute on the basis of OECD and IMF statistics, the economic misery index for Korea jumped from 5.7 last year to 6.3 this year.
Compared with 5.5 for China, 4.5 for Japan and 3.3 for Singapore, Korea is likely to undergo further economic contraction in 2003, the LG Group think tank said in a report.
"The mounting inflation and unemployment rates, to name a few, will impinge upon the livelihood of the Koreans," said the report. "Korea's economic misery index was lower than the OECD average of 8.6, but turned out to be slightly higher than the average of Asia's developing countries, estimated at 6."
