South Korea has fared well among the world’s major economies, with a related economic indicator showing a mid-level performance, the Korea Center for International Finance said Monday. 

According to the Tracking Indices for the Global Economic Recovery, an index designed to measure global economic recovery by the think tank Brookings Institution and Financial Times, Asia’s fourth-largest economy posted minus 0.76. The figure marked 9th place among 23 leading economies, including advanced and emerging nations. The top ranked country was Ireland with 11.61, followed by Turkey (11.26), China (7.68), Australia (4.23), the United States (3.17), Netherlands (2.92), Spain (0.95) and Canada (minus 0.40). 

TIGER index quantifies each country’s economic recovery by analyzing several indicators of real economic activity and financial status.

Korea saw its TIGER index plunge to minus 5.93 in June in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sharpest drop since 2009 with minus 6.23. However, the index climbed by 3.17 points to reach minus 2.76 in July, continuing the uptrend until August. 

Experts forecast the local economy to go through a “K-shaped” recovery. A K-shaped recovery refers to a response to an economic slowdown in which some industries and individuals recover while others continue to decline. 

“The economic recovery across countries will move at different paces due to a growing divergence in fiscal health and quarantine capabilities amid the prolonged pandemic,” said Lee Sang-won, the KCIF’s deputy general manager.

“Emerging markets, including South Korea, China and Taiwan boasting moderate sovereign credit ratings and health care systems as well as some European states with stable fiscal space and industrial power like Germany will probably show faster recovery than others.”

In the July-September period, the country’s real gross domestic product gained 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, when it saw a negative growth of 3.2 percent, thanks to robust growth in exports, according to data from the Bank of Korea. The third-quarter reading marked the fastest growth since the first quarter of 2010, showing signs of recovery from the protracted COVID-19 crisis. 

But growing fears of a coronavirus resurgence due to the ongoing three-digit gains in new daily cases have been frustrating expectations of an economic recovery as the infections will continue to reduce household consumption, taking a toll on the real economy, officials said. 

By Choi Jae-hee (cjh@heraldcorp.com)