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Koreans got richer last year as national income recovers

Published: 05 Mar. 2024, 10:53

JIN MIN-JI
[email protected]

Containers are stacked at a pier in Korea's largest port city of Busan on July 4, 2023. [YONHAP]

Korea’s per capita gross national income (GNI) reached $33,745 last year, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier as the economy started to pick up and the won stabilized against the greenback.

The growth followed a 7.4 percent retreat in 2022 when the value of won drastically fell against the U.S. dollar amid global economic uncertainties and aggressive monetary tightening in key economies following the pandemic.

In Korean won, the GNI last year grew 3.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on Tuesday.

Korea’s GDP — a key measure of economic growth — increased 1.4 percent last year, matching an earlier estimate, amid sluggish exports and tightening monetary policies around the globe.

But last year's economic expansion marked a slowdown from a 2.6 percent advance in 2022 and 4.3 percent growth in 2021, and the lowest since a 0.7 percent contraction in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the final quarter of last year, Asia's fourth-largest economy advanced 0.6 percent on-quarter, also in line with an earlier estimate.

Korean economy has been on a recovery pace since it contracted 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 in the face of aggressive monetary tightening in major countries, escalating geopolitical tensions, rising household debt and a slowdown in China's economy, the country's top trading partner.

Last month, the country's central bank froze its key rate for the ninth straight session at 3.5 percent amid woes over slower-than-expected inflation moderation and high household debts.

The rate freezes came after the BOK delivered seven consecutive rate hikes from April 2022 to January 2023.

The central bank said last year's expansion came as exports and domestic demand remained relatively sound.

BY JIN MIN-JI, YONHAP [[email protected]]