The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is considering revising up the earlier growth outlook for South Korea, a senior economist at the organization said on Wednesday.

According to Olivier Blanchard, senior economic counselor at the IMF, who visited Seoul for an international conference, the IMF is likely to upgrade many of the growth outlooks for emerging markets, though the exact numbers haven't been finalized.

Blanchard said as there are many signs, such as export conditions, hinting at stabilization of the South Korean economy, the IMF will pull up their earlier projection for South Korea.

The IMF's latest growth outlooks are expected in a month, following its April prediction, on which South Korea's economy was expected to decline 4 percent in 2009.

However, the economist showed caution against premature optimism, saying it was too early to be confident of the full recovery of the Asian markets, including that of South Korea, as they are reliant on the turnabout of the US and other larger markets.

Meanwhile, the World Bank earlier in the week predicted that the South Korean economy would mark a 2.9 percent contraction, downgrading its earlier projection, mainly due to the protracted global slump.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2009)