South Korea in the Year 2010

The World Bank recently announced that South Korea's GNI (Gross National Income) per capita last year reached to U$19,830, increasing U$2,700 from U$17,175 calculated by the Bank of Korea for the same year. The gap is reportedly occurred due to the difference in applying the exchange rate between the Korea Won and the US Dollar. The Bank of Korea simply applied the average exchange rate of last year to the assessment. The World Bank, however, applied the average exchange rate of the previous 3 years, so as the data not to be influenced by the rapid change in exchange rate during the short length of time.

The GNI per capita, anyway, stepped backward to the world's ranking number 54th, 5 stairs downward comparing to the previous year. Considering the fact that South Korea's overall economic scale (from the eye of the GNP) is the world's 15th, our nation's GNI per capita is still far lower than those of the advanced countries. Based on the PPP (Purchasing Power Parity), measuring the actual purchasing power of consumers, allowing for the different prices of commodities by each country, the GDP is ranked as the world's 13th and the GNI per capita ranked as 48th, respectively. It is generally expected the GDP world ranking will be rising and particularly the GNI per capita will be over U$20,000 in this year.

As the South Korean government forecasts it's economic growth rate can be reached to 6% by the end of the year, the IMF revises it's forecast to 5.75%, as well. The Bank of Korea says "If the exchange rate could be kept lower equilibrium this year, it would be a matter of time for our nation's GNI per capita to return to U$20,000 level." It also says "The remarkable rising of the World Bank's ranking in terms of GNP, GDP and GNI per capita, etc. can be expected, too."

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* GNP per capita shows what part of a country’s GNP each person would have if this GNP were divided equally. Knowing a country’s GNP per capita is a good first step toward understanding the country’s economic strengths and needs, as well as the general standard of living enjoyed by the average citizen. A country’s GNP per capita tends to be closely linked with other indicators that measure the social, economic, and environmental well-being of the country and its people. For example, generally people living in countries with higher GNP per capita tend to have longer life expentancies, higher literacy rates, better access to safe water, and lower infant mortality rates.