The South Korean economy grew by its fastest pace in nearly a year in the first three months of the year, driven by overseas demand and capital investment to suggest the economy may finally gain speed from a lengthy stagnation, the central bank said.

According to the preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on Thursday, the country’s gross domestic product totaled 383.6 trillion won ($339 billion) in the January to March period, adding 0.9 percent from the previous quarter and 2.7 percent on yearly basis, the fastest movement since the second quarter of 2016.

The data had limited impact on the stock market mostly weighed down by the news of Samsung Electronics’ dumping the idea of reorganizing the company into holding and business entity and cancelling treasury stock of over $40 billion.

The main Kospi finised Thursday at 2,209.46 points, up 0.07 percent from the previous sesseion in Seoul trading.

Although moving at snail’s pace of 1 percent for the past six consecutive quarters, the economy showed signs of bottoming out and raised hopes of outperforming the government’s annual growth estimate of 2.6 percent for full 2017.

Facilities investment grew 4.3 percent on quarter and 14.3 percent on year amid the boom in the semiconductor industry due to surge in global demand and prices. Construction investment increased sharply by 5.3 percent from 1.2 percent retreat in the previous quarter, the strongest gain since the first quarter of 2016.

Exports increased 1.9 percent from 0.1 percent drop in the previous quarter and 3.7 percent from a year ago led by rising demand for semiconductors and machinery and equipment. Exports of goods recorded the highest quarter-on-quarter gain of 2.6 percent since the third quarter 2012. Imports also rose 4.3 percent on quarter and 9.4 percent on year.

Manufacturing output rose 2.0 percent on quarter and 4.4 percent on year. Service sector grew 0.1 percent on a quarterly basis and 1.5 percent from a year ago.

Private consumption was up by 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, driven by overseas spending. Gross domestic income expanded 2.3 percent on quarter, compared with 0.8 percent gain of the previous three months.

By Boo Jang-won

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]