A man walks past an electronic screen showing South Korea's benchmark stock index surpassing 5,000 points in a foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on January 22, 2026

A man walks past an electronic screen showing South Korea's benchmark stock index surpassing 5,000 points in a foreign exchange dealing room at the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on January 22, 2026

 Jung Yeon-je

South Korea logged its slowest growth in half a decade in 2025, the country's central bank said Thursday, while exports rose on the back of a boom in artificial intelligence.

Asia's fourth-largest economy has struggled with sluggish demand, a troubled housing market and the fallout of former president Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration, which plunged the country into political chaos.

Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.