S. Korea's Q1 growth slightly higher at 0.5%: BOK

South Korea's economy grew just 0.5 percent in the first quarter, the Bank of Korea said Thursday -- a shade higher than originally estimated but weighed down by an extended export slump. The revised on-quarter growth figure for the January-March period was slightly up on the central bank's earlier estimate of 0.4 percent, but still down from 0.7 in the final quarter of last year. Exports, which account for nearly half of the South Korean economy, have been in decline for 17 straight months, whi