The government lowered the target growth rate from 3.7% to 3.3% over fears that the Eurozone crisis would last longer than expected and slow down the rest of the global economy. Although the government lowered the target growth rate, it forecast that the local economy would create 400,000 jobs and that consumer prices would rise by 2.8% At the beginning of the year, the administration wanted to stabilize the middle class, but outstanding challenges for the second half of the year include: responding to the global economic slowdown, increasing domestic demand, and creating jobs. To get a better idea of what the Korean economy will look like in the second half of this year, "Insight" interviews Dr Song Won-geun of the Korea Economic Research Institute.