Foreign investment banks expect Korea's economic growth will be cut by up to 0.3 percentage point this year due to Britain's decision to leave the European Union, data showed Monday.

Foreign IBs such as the Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup viewed uncertainties involving Britain's decision last week to leave the EU will have a bigger impact on Asia's fourth-biggest economy than expected declines in exports to Britain, according to the data from the state-sponsored Korea Center for International Finance. 

BofA-ML estimated Korea's decreased shipments to Britain will drag down the former's gross domestic product growth by 0.02 percentage point this year and 0.06 percentage point next year, the KCIF data said.

Citigroup forecast Korea's GDP growth will be slashed by between 0.1 percentage point to 0.2 percentage point due to Brexit in 2016. Nomura Holdings Inc. was the most pessimistic with a forecast of a 0.3 percentage point drop in Korea's growth this year, according to the data.

Korea's economy is widely expected to grow by around 2.5 percent this year. It grew 2.6 percent last year, decelerating from the previous year's 3.3 percent growth.(Yonhap)