| Containers are stacked on docks at Busan Port, Tuesday. Yonhap |
By Yi Whan-woo
Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell at the third-fastest pace among the world's major economies last year, driven by a sharp depreciation of the Korean currency against the U.S dollar, according to a report, Wednesday.
The report was based on data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB).
The pace of decline in Korea's GDP per capita was the steepest among the world's 47 largest economies, many of them OECD members, except for Japan which posted a 15.1 percent fall and Sweden which declined 8.5 percent.
Korea accordingly had the 23rd-highest GDP per capita among the surveyed countries, trailing 20th-ranked Italy ($34,109), 21st-ranked Japan ($33,864) and 22nd-ranked Russia ($32,410).
Luxemburg topped the list with $125,558, trailed by Norway with $106,180, Ireland with $104,237, Switzerland with $91,976 and the United States with $76,360.
The report attributed the fall in Korea's GDP per capita to the weakened value of the Korean won against the dollar.
The Korean currency was traded at 1,291.75 per dollar on average in 2022, a 12.9 percent depreciation from the previous year.
In terms of the local currency, South Korea's nominal GDP advanced 3.9 percent to 2,161.8 trillion won ($1.68 trillion) on a year-on-year basis.
The dollar-converted figure, however, was down 7.9 percent year-on-year. It was the second-largest decline among the 47 countries after Japan with a 15.5 percent fall.
“Such a decrease in dollar-converted nominal GDP is worrisome, because it indicates that the country's economy as a whole shrank back to its size from 10 years ago,” the DPK lawmaker said, making a comparison with the 2013 GDP of $1.37 trillion.
The lawmaker said the government, despite months of sluggish exports, “does not appear to have any vision to revitalize the economy and it is feared to lose growth momentum completely in the end.”