South Korean finance minister expresses confidence in his 2014 growth outlook

South Korea's finance minister on Thursday expressed his confidence in the government's growth forecast for next year amid worries that the projection might be too optimistic to achieve in the face of tough market conditions at home and abroad. Hyun Oh-seok made the remarks during his meeting with reporters in Washington where he was to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. "I don't think that (the government's growth projection) is a rosy outlook," Hyun told reporters. "Given that it is the government that holds a large amount of policy-related information, the government is in a better position to predict growth." The remarks came amid worries that the government's growth forecast for next year might be too optimistic, compared with projections made by other think tanks and experts. In its 2014 budget proposal, the government earlier expected that its economy will grow 3.9 percent next year following a 2.7 percent gain this year. Its projection for next year is higher than the Bank of Korea's 3.8 percent growth outlook unveiled on Thursday and a 3.7 percent growth predicted by the IMF on Tuesday. He said that it is "high-quality information" that determines whether a prediction is accurate or not, suggesting that his government holds more and better information than other agencies.