Seoul, April 24
The South Korean economy posted negative growth from three months earlier in the first quarter, the first on-quarter contraction in nine months, central bank data showed on Thursday, amid a domestic political crisis and uncertainties stemming from the Donald Trump administration's sweeping tariff scheme.
The country's real gross domestic product (GDP) -- a key measure of economic growth -- contracted 0.2 percent in the January-March period from a quarter earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
On a year-on-year basis, the economy contracted 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2025, compared with 1.2 percent on-year expansion in the previous quarter, the data showed, reports news agency.
Asia's fourth-largest economy expanded 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024 but slipped into contraction in the second quarter with a 0.2 percent decline, before barely growing 0.1 percent in both the third and fourth quarters.
In its forecast presented in February, the BOK expected the economy to expand 0.2 percent in the first quarter.