A view of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., Nov. 24, 2024 / Reuters-Yonhap

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday lowered its growth outlook for Korea to 2 percent this year, citing downside risks for major economies outside the United States.

The latest forecast by the IMF marked a 0.2 percentage-point drop from an earlier projection presented in October. The growth outlook for 2026 was also revised downward by 0.1 percentage point, to 2.1 percent.

"Upside risks could lift already robust growth in the United States in the short run, whereas risks in other countries are on the downside amid elevated policy uncertainty," the IMF said in its latest report.

The latest projection for Asia's fourth-largest economy is slightly more optimistic than the Korean government's forecast of a 1.8 percent expansion.

In November, an IMF team, led by Korea mission chief Rahul Anand, assessed the 2 percent growth outlook after an annual meeting with Korean officials.

At that time, the team cited downside risks, including a slowdown in trade, heightened geopolitical tensions and rising commodity prices driven by conflicts in the Middle East.

"So the downside risks that we identify include risks related to a slowdown in trading partners and an intensification of geopolitical tensions," Anand had said at a press briefing in Seoul.

The IMF said managing the risks requires a keen policy focus on balancing trade-offs between inflation and real activity, rebuilding buffers and lifting medium-term growth prospects through stepped-up structural reforms.

Meanwhile, the IMF said the global growth is projected at 3.3 percent in 2025, slightly up from the 3.2 percent growth estimate presented in October.

"The forecast for 2025 is broadly unchanged from that in the October 2024 World Economic Outlook, primarily on account of an upward revision in the United States offsetting downward revisions in other major economies," the report said. (Yonhap)