Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased its global growth forecast for 2023 slightly from the previous 2.7 percent last October to 2.9 percent on the back of decreasing inflation and China's earlier-than-expected re-opening. The Korean economy seems a misfit to this global growth scenario, being the only major economy whose growth forecast was adjusted downward from 2.0 percent to 1.7 percent during the same period.