Half of chief executive officers warn of slump ahead.

(From The Korea Herald)

Half of chief executive officers of the nation's 100 largest companies are concerned that the business conditions in Korea are now heading for a downturn, a poll showed yesterday.

In a survey of the top-100 company CEOs by the Korea Employers Federation, 49 percent said that the possibility of domestic business circumstances slipping into a slump is high, while another 8 percent said that the cycle has already entered the phase of a downturn.

Reflecting the widespread skepticism, 97 percent of the polled CEOs forecast that Korea's economic growth rate for 2003 would fall from this year's estimate of 6.2 percent.

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