성장률 전망치 더 낮춘 국내기관…한경연은 1.9%까지 ↓

We begin on the economic front...
Korea’s major research institutions have cut the nation’s growth outlook for this year... citing falling exports and unfavorable external factors.
Shrinking investment and domestic consumption... are also to blame for Korea’s gloomy economic forecast.
Lee Kyung-eun has our top story.
The Korea Economic Research Institute now forecasts the local economy to grow 1-point-nine percent this year.
Downgrading it from the previous 2-point-two percent in June, it becomes the first agency in Korea to put the figure below 2-percent range, citing growing uncertainties from home and abroad.
"Unlike what was expected before, the U.S.-China trade war has escalated in the second half, and at the same time there's the ongoing Seoul-Tokyo trade dispute. A lowering of the growth rate was inevitable, given the falling prices of semiconductors and growing trade uncertainties stemming from the export curbs Japan imposed in July."
Other economic think tanks have also lowered their forecasts.
The Hyundai Research Institute now has the figure at 2-point-1 percent... down from 2.5 percent three months ago,... and the Korea Institute of Finance last month... also predicted 2.1 percent.
Along with sluggish exports, experts attribute the cut to falling investment and domestic consumption.
Last month, facilities investment dropped nearly five percent on-year.
And inflation,...largely due to falling oil prices and weak consumer demand, turned negative for the first time,...triggering fears of deflation.
According to the Bank of Korea, if the economy maximized its economic output at a constant rate of inflation what's known as potential growth would be between 2-point-5 and 2-point-6 percent this year and next.
That figure is usually calculated every five years and it's been steadily declining from around 5 percent at the turn of the century,... which economists attribute to a rapidly aging population and falling productivity.
Lee Kyung-eun, Arirang News.