South Korea's Q3 growth up as exports, consumption, investment lift

SEOUL - Q3 GDP growth in South Korea picked up to 3.6% y/y (1.4% q/q sa) from 2.7% y/y previously. The expansion was broad-based across exports, private consumption and facilities investment. 

ANZ Bank says this pace of activity does raise prospects for an earlier-than-anticipated tightening of monetary policy.

“Our present forecast is that the Bank of Korea will raise its policy rate only in Q3 2018, but the broad-based strength of the GDP data clearly challenges this,” ANZ says. “We will be revisiting our forecast.”  www.live.anz.com (ATI).