BOK slashes 2017 growth outlook to 2.8 pct: BOK chief

SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's central bank said Thursday it has revised down its growth outlook for next year for Asia's fourth-largest economy to 2.8 percent from the 2.9 percent forecast three months earlier.

The outlook is lower than the government's estimate that the local economy could reach the 3 percent range next year.

Still, Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said South Korea will not have difficulties in achieving 2.7 percent economic growth this year.

Lee said that the central bank took into account fallout from Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone in its quarterly revision of growth outlook.

Samsung announced a global recall of the Note 7 last month after some of the smartphones caught fire. But the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones decided earlier this week to terminate the production of the model, days after resuming the sales of its replacements, which kept causing similar problems.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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