By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter


South Korea overtook Mexico to become the world’s 10th largest economy last year.





The World Bank ranked Korea 10th with a gross national income (GNI) of $606 billion in 2003, narrowing the gap with China, which slid to seventh from sixth a year ago.

According to the World Development Indicators 2004 published by the World Bank, Brazil, ranked 13th in 2003, slid to 15th place while India maintained the 12th spot on the basis of GNI.

The report showed that Korea overtook Mexico, whose GNI stood at $602 billion last year. Canada (eighth), Spain (ninth), the Netherlands (13th) and Australia (14th) posted similar figures with Korea, with GNI’s of $833 billion, $828 billion, $494 billion and $465 billion, respectively.

Korea’s ranking rose over the past 30 years _ 39th in 1970 with $8.2 billion, 29th in 1980 with $62.7 billion, 15th in 1990 with $263 billion and 12th in 2000 with $509 billion.

According to the World Bank, the United States ranked first with the largest GNI of $10.9 trillion, followed by Japan with $4.3 trillion, Germany with $2.3 trillion and the United Kingdom with $1.8 trillion.

``Considering that the Korean currency is undergoing sharper appreciation against the dollar than currencies of Spain (ninth) and Canada (eighth) this year, the nation’s ranking may inch up in the near future,’’ a Bank of Korea (BOK) official predicted Wednesday.

But the nation’s per-capita GNI ranking fell by one notch from 49th in 2002 to 50th in 2003, lower than 46th in 2000 and 45th in 1995. Its per-capita GNI recorded $12,646 last year, smaller than Puerto Rico (49th), which posted $13,050.

The per-capita income level of Korea is similar to that of Bahrain (51st with $11,885) and Slovenia (47th with $13,808).

If a nation’s per-capita GNI exceeds $9,076, it is categorized as a high-income group (55 countries), while it is classified in a low-income group when the per capita income is smaller than $735 (63 countries), according to the BOK.

Despite the expansion of the economy, Korea is suffering from the widening gap between GNI growth and growth in consumer prices. During the third quarter of 2004, its GNI growth rate stayed at 3.5 percent compared with 4.5 percent growth in indices for consumer prices.

kys@koreatimes.co.kr