S. Korean firms believe U.S. financial turmoil will cause global recession

SEOUL, Sept. 29 (Yonhap) -- More than 70 percent of South Korean companies believe that turmoil in the U.S. financial markets will cause a global recession, according to survey results announced Monday.

The Federation of Korean Industries, South Korea's largest business lobby,
reported 70.6 percent of local companies said they believed the U.S. financial
crisis would force the world's real economies into "a recession" or "spread into
a global credit crisis."
In contrast, only 29.4 percent said they believed the dust from the U.S.
financial meltdown would "settle soon."
In the U.S., policymakers and lawmakers agreed on a tentative deal to approve a
US$700 billion bailout plan to rescue their ailing financial sector.
The agreement came 10 days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal
Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asked Congress to take action to save the U.S.
financial system from collapse.
The U.S. is South Korea's second-largest export destination after China.
In the survey of the nation's top 600 companies by revenue, most companies said
their exports to the U.S. would decline or plans for raising funds at home would
be crippled due to the financial meltdown in the world's largest economy.
About 45 percent of the companies surveyed called for their government to
stabilize the Korean currency's value to help them weather the difficulties.
The survey did not give a margin of error.
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