Per-capita GDP won’t reach $20,000

Korea’s per-capita GDP will fail to reach the $20,000 level this year, according to a report from Samsung Economic Research Institute, the nation’s leading private think tank.
The report said yesterday that the Korean currency would trade at an average of 925 won to the U.S. dollar for all of 2007, a level lower than the 906 won that should be maintained to achieve the government target of $20,000 per-capita gross domestic product. In 2007, the per-capita GDP will reach $19,624, it added.
Asia’s third-largest economy will grow 4.1 percent in the January-June period and 4.5 percent in the July-December period, the institute said, revising its previous forecast made in November 2006.
The first-half outlook is 0.1 percentage point higher than the initial forecast, while the second-half growth projection is 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous one. As for the full-year growth, the institute retained its forecast of 4.3 percent growth.
“The institute upgraded the outlook for first-half economic growth as the global economic environment is better than our expectations,” said Hwang In-won, a SERI researcher. “A better climate surrounding the North Korean nuclear problem and the eased ascent of the local currency to the U.S. dollar also contributed to the better outlook.”
The on-year economic growth will accelerate to 4.4 percent in the second quarter from 3.9 percent in the first.