President Park Geun-hye plans to hold an emergency meeting with economic ministers and private experts later this week to check the effects of a recent slowdown in consumption and draw up countermeasures, an official said Wednesday. Friday's meeting is believed to have been hurriedly set up as consumption shows signs of slowing down as the country has been mournful in recent weeks over the tragic sinking of the ferry Sewol that left more than 300 people dead or missing, most of them high school students.