SEOUL - THE International Monetary Fund is likely next month to upgrade its growth outlook for South Korea and other emerging Asian economies as stability begins to return, a senior IMF economist said on Wednesday.

'We haven't finalised the new numbers (for emerging markets). But it is very likely that many of the numbers are going to be revised upward on average by about one percentage point,' Olivier Blanchard, senior IMF economic counsellor, told a conference co-hosted by the Seoul government and the World Bank.

The economies due for an upgrade include South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, Mr Blanchard was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying, adding that the outlooks for China and India will probably be maintained.

In April the IMF downgraded South Korea's 2010 growth projection to 1.5 per cent from 4.2 per cent earlier, while maintaining its forecast for this year of a 4 per cent contraction.

'The downgrade was due to a decrease in exports... but the fiscal stimulus and monetary policies taken by the authorities are taking effect, while the deprecation of the (local) currency helped,' Mr Blanchard said.

The economist said Asian nations will do better than Europe and the US in the months to come, but will not fully recover before their export markets improve.

Mr Blanchard attributed the recent rise in crude prices to speculation, which 'can affect prices but not for very long.' He said prices are not expected greatly to exceed US$70 (S$102) a barrel, which would not hurt the global economic recovery. -- AFP