SEOUL, June 3 (Xinhua) -- A South Korean economic think tank on Monday lowered its 2019 growth outlook for the economy by 0.2 percentage points amid growing worry about the global trade dispute that may hit hard the export-driven economy.
The Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) under the conglomerate lobby group Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) revised down this year's growth forecast for the South Korean economy by 0.2 percentage points to 2.2 percent.
It was lower than the outlooks of the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that recently cut their forecasts from 2.6 percent to 2.4 percent.
The recent series of downward revisions came as export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, continued to decline for six months through May.
The falling pace of export was faster in May compared with the previous month as the global trade friction, caused by the U.S. protectionist moves, worsened trade across the world.
The KERI forecast the South Korean export would grow 1.4 percent this year, less than half of a 2.9 percent expansion estimated previously.
Facility investment was predicted to contract 5 percent this year on the negative effect from the global trade friction.
Private consumption was expected to rise 2.3 percent this year on the government's efforts to boost income of the low-income bracket, but it was 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous forecast.