No Gangnam Style joy in Korea growth

SEOUL - Agence France - Presse

Santa-like dressed volunteers perform 'Gangnam Style’ dance for premature born kids in Seoul. AP photo/ Lee Jin-man

South Korea’s economy grew 0.1 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months - the slowest pace in more than three years, on shrinking investment and manufacturing, data showed yesterday.

The revised figure - compared to 0.2 percent growth predicted by the Bank of Korea in October - was the same as the first quarter of 2009 when the South was hit by the global financial crisis.

On a year-on-year basis, gross domestic product -- the broadest measure of economic performance - for July-September was up 1.5 percent, compared to 2.3 percent on-year gain in the second quarter. Exports, which account for nearly half of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, rose 2.8 percent from the previous quarter due to robust overseas shipments of mobile devices and petrochemical products.