BOK: economic setback from THAAD backlash to ease from second quarter 2018

Chang Min, the Bank of Korea's director general for its research department, told a press briefing the expected relief from the economic backlash is expected to boost economic growth by 0.1 percentage point in 2018.

China has been curbing South Korean companies from doing business in China in protest against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system it believes can be used to look inside its territory. Both South Korea and the United States have said THAAD is only to deter North Korea's missile threats.

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Cynthia Kim; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)