This photograph taken on September 22 shows the logo of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) displayed on banners at the OECD headquarters in Paris. AFP-Yonhap
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday raised Korea's economic growth outlook for this year to 2.6 percent from 1.7 percent three months earlier, citing the country's robust chip exports amid the artificial intelligence boom.
The Paris-based organization said the country's outbound shipments of chips are expected to continue driving economic growth.
Korea's exports surged 53 percent from a year earlier to a new monthly high of $87.8 billion in May, driven by the semiconductor super cycle.
Seoul's chip exports soared 169.4 percent on-year to an all-time monthly high of $37.2 billion in May. It marked the third consecutive month that chip exports exceeded the $30 billion mark.
In detail, outbound shipments of DRAM and NAND flash memory jumped 369.8 percent and 206.8 percent to $18.6 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.
The upward revision is in line with the outlook of the Bank of Korea and is above the 2.5 percent estimate of the Korea Development Institute.
According to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the OECD said the chip industry is expected to maintain solid exports while leading domestic investment.
On the economic growth outlook for 2027, the OECD projected growth of 1.9 percent, down 0.2 percentage point from the March projection.
Touching on inflation, the OECD projected consumer prices in Korea to rise 2.6 percent in 2026, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous report.
Source: Korea Times News
