A quick recovery of South Korea's economy is unlikely due to the global economic slowdown, said Noh Daelae, South Korea's Assistant Deputy Finance Minister on Friday.

"Recently, the South Korean economy showed signs of recovery with financial markets stabilizing and some economic indexes improving, including the production indexes and the trade balances," said Nohat a seminar for foreign correspondents in South Korea's southern island of Jeju.

According to Noh, the country's production indexes are expected to see a month-on-month increase in February following the previous month, while the trade balance is projected to record a surplus of US$4 billion in March, up from February's surplus of US$2.9 billion.

However, he said that an upturn in the world economy is crucial for the South Korean economy to rebound as South Korea is heavily dependent on the global economy.

The South Korean government decided to keep the outlook for this year's economic growth at negative 2 percent as forecast last February since downside risks such as a deepening global recession are increasing compared with last February, he said.

The official said that the South Korean government has taken measures to overcome the crisis, including the expansion of fiscal expenditures and deregulation on industrial investment.

The government has expanded its budget for 2009 by a total of 38.9 trillion won (US$29.2 billion), which is equivalent to 4 percent of the nation's GDP, to boost the domestic demand and expects the GDP will grow by an additional 1.5 percent with the extra budget, Noh said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2009)