Korea falls one spot in global GDP rankings

Korea’s global ranking in gross domestic product (GDP) fell a notch last year from the year before, while its gross national income (GNI) per capita jumped more than 10 spots, the latest data from the World Bank showed Thursday.

Korea came in 12th with a GDP of $1.53 trillion. The country’s ranking has fluctuated over the years, from 11th in 2006 to 13th in 2007 and 15th in 2008. It stayed at 14th from 2009-2013 before climbing to 11th in the 2015-2016 period.

The United States was at the top of the list with $19.39 trillion, followed by China ($12.23 trillion) and Japan ($4.87 trillion). Germany came in fourth with $3.67 trillion and the United Kingdom was fifth with $2.62 trillion.

For GNI per capita, South Korea came in 31st, up 14 notches from the previous year, with $28,380. The country’s GNI purchasing power parity (PPP) also ranked 31st at $38,260, up 17 spots from 2016.

A Bank of Korea official said the climb in GNI per capita likely had to do in part with the country’s foreign exchange rate, while the upward move in the GNI PPP was due to the lower inflation rate compared with other countries.

The Isle of Man, a self-governing British island, topped the list for GNI per capita with $82,650, apparently from its status as a tax haven. Qatar was No. 1 in terms of GNI PPP with $128,060.

The World Bank’s data differ from figures given by the Bank of Korea because they use different exchange rates in the calculations. The World Bank uses the average exchange rate of the three most recent years, while the central bank uses the average rate of the corresponding year.

The Bank of Korea assessed last year’s GDP at $600 million less than the World Bank and Korea’s GNI per capital at $29,745.

Yonhap