In the early 1960s, the Park government instituted sweeping economic reforms emphasizing exports and labor-intensive light industries. The government carried out a currency reform, strengthened financial institutions, and introduced flexible economic planning. In the 1970's Korea began directing fiscal and financial policies toward promoting heavy and chemical industries, as well as consumer electronics and automobiles. Manufacturing continued to grow rapidly in teh 1980's and early 1990's.
In recent years Korea's economy moved away from the centrally planned, government-directed investment model toward a more market-oriented one. Korea bounced back from the 1997-98 crisis with IMF assistance, and carried out extensive financial reforms that restored stability to markets. These economic reforms pushed by President Kim Dae-jung , helped Korea maintain one of Asia's few expanding economies, with growth rates of 10% in 1999 and 9% in 2000. The slowing global economy and falling exports account for the drop in growth rates in 2001 to 3.3%, but in 2002 Korea pulled out a very respectable 6.0% growth rate. Restructuring of Korean conglomerates (chaebols), bank privatization, and creating a more liberalized economy with a mechanism for bankrupt firms to exit the market remain Korea's most important unfinished reform tasks.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $931 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
5.8% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $19,400 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
Population below poverty line:
NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
0.8% (1999 est.)
Labor force:
22 million (1998)
Labor force - by occupation:
services and other 68%, mining and manufacturing 20%, agriculture, fishing, forestry 12% (1998)
Unemployment rate:
6.3% (1999 est.)
Budget:
Industries:
electronics, automobile production, chemicals, shipbuilding, steel, textiles, clothing, footwear, food processing
Industrial production growth rate:
22% (1999 est.)
Electricity - production:
221.258 billion kWh (1998)
Electricity - production by source:
Electricity - consumption:
205.77 billion kWh (1998)
Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (1998)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (1998)
Agriculture - products:
rice, root crops, barley, vegetables, fruit; cattle, pigs, chickens, milk, eggs; fish
Exports:
$144 billion (f.o.b., 1999)
Exports - commodities:
electronic products, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, steel, ships; textiles, clothing, footwear; fish
Exports - partners:
US 17%, Japan 9%, Mainland China 9%, Hong Kong 7%, Taiwan 4% (1998)
Imports:
$116 billion (c.i.f., 1999)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, electronics and electronic equipment, oil, steel, transport equipment, textiles, organic chemicals, grains
Imports - partners:
US 22%, Japan 18%, Mainland China 7%, Australia 5%, Saudi Arabia 5% (1998)
Debt - external:
$142 billion (1999)
Economic aid - recipient:
$NA
Currency:
1 South Korean won (W) = 100 chun (theoretical)
Exchange rates:
South Korean won (W) per US$1 - 1,130.32 (January 2000), 1,188.82 (1999), 1,401.44 (1998), 951.29 (1997), 804.45 (1996), 771.27 (1995)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
See also :
North-South Trade
Since 1988, two-way trade between the two Koreas has increased from $18.8 million in 1989 to $647.1 million in 2002. In 2002, South Korea imported $271.57 million worth of goods from North Korea, mostly agro-fisheries and metal products, while shipping $371.55 million worth of goods, mostly humanitarian aid commodities including fertilizer and textiles as inputs for North Korean garment manufacturers. The ROK is now North Korea's third-largest trading partner, after China and Japan. Numerous ventures by the Hyundai Corporation have contributed to North Korea's economy, including the Mount Keumgang (Diamond Mountain) tourist site. Last year alone, 84,347 visitors traveled by Hyundai-operated passenger ships, and most recently via land routes, as part of this tourism initiative, raising the total number of South Korean visitors to over half a million. A mere 1,141 North Koreans traveled to South Korea, mainly for joint sporting events. Hyundai Asan is also lined up to be the South Korean party that will help develop a 800-acre industrial complex in Kaesong, located near the DMZ, subject to final agreements, including between Seoul and Pyongyang. The year 2002 witnessed significant progress on the Seoul-Sinuiju railroad, on both reconstructing road and rail links across the DMZ.
agriculture:
4%
industry:
42%
services:
54% (2002 est.)
lowest 10%:
NA%
highest 10%:
NA%
revenues:
$68.9 billion
expenditures:
$82.3 billion, including capital expenditures of $14.5 billion (1998)
fossil fuel:
59.56%
hydro:
1.91%
nuclear:
38.51%
other:
0.02% (1998)