Mixed results from South Korea.

On March 8, 2007, the Yonhap News Agency (Seoul) reported that consumer confidence in the Asia Pacific region's third largest economy rose in February 2007 when compared with January 2007. (Note: Market: Asia Pacific ranks South Korea as the fifth largest economy in the region using International Monetary Fund statistics.) The news agency cited South Korea's National Statistical Office (NSO) as the source for the report. The consumer confidence index was 98.1 points in February 2007 compared with 96.1 points in January 2007.

On March 21, 2007, A Bloomberg News filing running in the International Herald Tribune (Neuilly) said that the Bank of Korea (BOK) changed its estimate of GDP expansion in the fourth quarter 2007. The BOK initially estimated expansion at 0.8 percent, but exports declined less than had been anticipated, and that prompted the BOK to revise its estimate upward to 0.9 percent.

The BOK also said that on an annualized basis, the South Korean economy grew at the rate of 4.0 percent. This was the slowest rate for the past 18 months. Annual growth for 2006 was 5.0 percent. Annual growth for 2005 was 4.2 percent.

Bloomberg interview an economist based in Singapore for its South Korea story. He said, "Domestic demand is still remaining fairly weak in Korea." He also predicted that exports would continue to slow. The slowing of exports is due to a decline in the expansion of the global economy, which slowdown was precipitated by the United States (US). Most economies in the Asia Pacific region are reflecting the slowdown.

Bloomberg also said private spending grew 1.0 percent in the final quarter 2007, but the rate of advance slowed due to record household debt and high borrowing costs.