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| ▲ On the morning of the first day of the new year of 2021, on the morning of the 1st, a truck is loading containers and moving between other containers at the Hanjin Terminal in Songdo New Port, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. | |
| Ⓒ Yonhap News |
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(Sejong = Yonhap News) Reporter Suyeon Sue = It is estimated that last year’s gross national income per capita (GNI), which shows the standard of living of Korean people, exceeded Italy, a member of the seven major countries (G7). Although Korea’s per capita national income has decreased to the low of $30,000, Europe’s indicators, which were greatly impacted by the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), are the result of further steps.
According to the Bank of Korea on the 12th, the nominal GNI per capita in Korea last year is estimated to be around $31,000, a slight decrease from $32,115 in 2019. Not only the real growth rate fell to negative, but also the nominal growth rate fell to the low 0% level, and the won/dollar exchange rate rose.
However, Korea’s per capita GNI ranking itself is expected to rise. According to the results calculated by the World Bank (WB) using the average exchange rate for the previous three years, Italy’s per capita GNI in 2019 was $34,530, slightly ahead of Korea ($3,790) that year.
Considering that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicted that Italy’s nominal growth rate last year was -7.9%, significantly lower than Korea (0.1%), Italy’s per capita GNI is likely to be less than that of Korea.
President Moon Jae-in said in his New Year’s address the previous day, “Our economy is expected to enter the top 10 in the world in terms of GDP with the highest growth rate among OECD countries last year,” and that per capita national income is also expected to surpass the G7 countries for the first time.
Although the indicators have not been released yet, if these projections come true, it will be the first case that Korea’s per capita GNI surpassed one of the major developed countries (US, Japan, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada) called G7.
Italy’s per capita national income has so far surpassed Korea. According to the World Bank, Korea’s per capita GNI in 2016 was $29,330, which was $2,600 less than Italy ($3,950). 3,840 dollars).
However, the per capita GNI gap with Italy narrowed in 2019, and Korea seems to have reversed last year.
Italy is the result of being hit by Corona 19 more than export-oriented Korea because of the high proportion of service industries such as tourism. Last year, Korea’s growth rate plummeted in the second quarter as major developed countries’shutdown’, but exports showed signs of recovery in November (4.1%) and December (12.6%).
The ranking of Korea’s economy is also expected to rise. According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook Report, Korea’s GDP in 2020 is $1.58 trillion, which is the 10th in the world.
This is two places up from the 12th place in 2019. Brazil and Russia, which were ahead of Korea in the previous year, are expected to finish in 12th and 11th respectively.
<저작권자(c) 연합뉴스, 무단 전재-재배포 금지>