South Korea is now more likely to meet its annual growth goal of 4 percent, with the economy on faster-than-expected track to recovery, despite woes stemming from the fourth and worst wave of the virus, a central bank official said Thursday.

The anticipation comes as the Bank of Korea announced on-quarter growth of 0.8 percent for the economy in the April-June period. The figure was 0.1 percentage point higher than expected, preliminary data from the BOK showed.

“With the higher-then-expected growth in the second-quarter, there is now more of a chance of meeting the 4 percent goal, if the economy expands by 0.6 percent each in the remaining third and fourth quarters,” Shin Seung-cheol, director of the national accounts division at the Bank of Korea said in a press briefing.

For the July-September period, Shin said that based on the existing data reflecting the economic situation in the period, exports are likely to continue a robust recovery as a main driving force behind the economy.

South Korea‘s exports grew 35 percent on-year to $53.2 billion last month, extending their gains to 10 months.

While private consumption is projected to be hit by the fourth wave of the virus, the damage is expected to be less compared to previous waves, according to Shin. Private consumption in the second quarter gained 3.6 percent on-quarter, on consumers’ larger spending on the services sector. The figure marked a record gain since 3.6 percent was observed in the second quarter of 2009.

The gross domestic product deflator, a gauge of inflation, gained 1.6 percent on-year.

Since early July, South Korea has been combating the fourth wave of the virus which has been putting daily cases above 1,000 for more than a month.

But the vaccination rate has been gaining traction, with a total of 29.4 million people, or 57.4 percent of the population, having received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, as of Thursday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Some 16.2 million people, or 31.7 percent, have been fully vaccinated, as well, health authorities said.

The BOK, last week, delivered its first pandemic-era rate hike to combat inflationary pressure and snowballing household debts. It ended 15 months of a record-low interest rate of 0.5 percent.

It upped its inflation outlook for this year to 2.1 percent from the previous 1.8 percent.

The BOK, however, kept this year’s growth outlook flat at 4 percent, which it had upped by 0.1 percentage point in May, from the previous forecast.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)