Samsung set to account for half of South Korea’s economic growth
Samsung Electronics Co. is poised to account for about half of South Korea’s economic growth this year, making its biggest contribution on record, Bloomberg Economics said, in commentary that underscores the company’s significance in an economy that ebbs and flows with the global semiconductor industry.
Samsung is South Korea’s largest company, accounting for about 8% of manufacturing output and 17% of the main stock index’s total market capitalization. Based on the gross profit its South Korea-based units generates, the company will likely be responsible for 1.1 percentage points of the 2.2% growth that the economy is expected to post this year, BE economist Hyosung Kwon said Friday in an analysis based on a series of data available since 2008.
The report underscores the importance of Samsung’s efforts to secure orders for high-bandwidth memory from Nvidia Corp. and other developers of computer processors that power artificial intelligence development. It also highlights the concentration of clout that Samsung has over Asia’s fourth-largest economy after global demand for memory chips increased.
The world’s largest memory-chip producer has rebounded this year from a semiconductor slump that BE says shaved 1.2 percentage points off the growth in gross domestic product in 2023. Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong said last month that GDP growth could moderate closer to 2.2% this year from a previous projection of 2.4% after the economy barely expanded last quarter.
“The firm’s unrivaled position in South Korea
