Korea No. 3 in economic growth

Economy

Published: 08 Mar. 2010, 22:12

Korea No. 3 in economic growth

Korea is expected to post the third-largest economic growth rate for 2009 among 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the latest data.

The country’s gross domestic product expanded by 0.2 percent last year, following Poland and Australia, which grew by 1.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, the OECD said in its latest tally of GDP.

The data do not cover nine countries including Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and Turkey. But the Finance Ministry said it’s unlikely those countries will post economic growth for 2009 given their weak performance during the first three quarters of the year.

The Austrian economy contracted by 4.9 percent in the first quarter, 5.1 percent in the second and 3.2 percent in the third. New Zealand’s economy shrunk by 3 percent, 2.1 percent and 1.3 percent in the first three quarters of last year, respectively, compared to the same period in 2008, while the situations in the seven other countries were similarly bleak. The Turkish economy, for instance, tumbled by 14.7 percent, 7.9 percent and 3.3 percent during the same period.

“We fared well given that Australia is a big natural resources exporter and Poland is in the middle of a big business boom tied to the Euro soccer championship,” said an official from the Finance Ministry.

The data paint a grim picture of the world’s seven major economies, none of which posted growth last year.

The United States and Britain saw their economies shrink by 2.4 percent and 5 percent, respectively, while France, Germany and Canada contracted by 2.2 percent, 5 percent and 2.6 percent, in that order. The Japanese economy also contracted by 5 percent last year.

Norway and Switzerland fared better, with their economies shrinking by 1.5 percent. But Finland and Mexico were not so lucky, as their GDPs tumbled a whopping 7.8 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.

Korea could fare better than its developed peers this year as well. The OECD issued a forecast last November estimating that the Korean economy will expand 4.4 percent this year - significantly higher than the estimated OECD average of 1.9 percent.

By Jung Ha-won [hawon@joongang.co.kr]

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지난해 우리나라가 경제협력개발기구(OECD) 30개 회원국 중에 세 번째로 높은 경제성장률을 달성한 것으로 잠정 집계됐다.

또한, 한국의 경제협력개발기구(OECD) 경기선행지수(CLI)는 9개월 연속 100을 넘어섰다.

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