Containers are being unloaded at Busan Port, July 1. Yonhap
The economy grew at the fastest pace in more than five years in the first quarter, supported by strong exports and solid domestic demand, central bank data showed Thursday.
The real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.8 percent in the January-March period from the previous quarter, 0.1 percentage point higher than the earlier estimate, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The reading marked the strongest quarterly growth since the third quarter of 2020, when the economy grew 2.3 percent.
On a yearly basis, the economy expanded 3.8 percent in the first quarter, a sharp pickup from the 1.6 percent growth recorded in the fourth quarter of last year. The on-year growth was the highest since the fourth quarter of 2021, when the economy grew 4.5 percent from a year earlier.
