S Korea's fixed investment growth rate drops to 7-year low

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SEOUL, Aug 19 (Xinhua): South Korea's fixed investment growth rate in the first half of this year stood at a seven-year low of 0.5 per cent from a year earlier, the Korea herald reported today.

According to the Bank of Korea (BoK), the investment growth rate is substantially lower than the 6.2 per cent growth during the same period last year and is the lowest since its 3.6 per cent decline in the first half of 2001.

South Korea's facility investment edged up 1.1 per cent year-on-year in the first half, a sharp decline from 11 per cent growth in the previous year, the central bank said.

Since 2001, the annual growth rate of fix investment in South Korea posted less than 3 per cent on average, the report added.

Facility investment growth had been robust in 1999 and 2000, marking 22.9 per cent and 51.4 per cent on-year growth respectively, the Korea Herald said.

However, it shrank 10 per cent in 2001 affected by the sluggish economy after the financial crisis in 1997 and 1998, the newspaper said.

Construction investment dropped to a minus 0.9 per cent in the first half of 2008, from a 2.5-per cent growth in 2007, the BoK said.