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Korea has been overtaken by Brazil to settle in 12th place worldwide in terms of GDP. After ceding 10th place to India in 2004, Korea has again slipped down the ranks. ¡°Korea in the World as Seen through Statistics¡±, an annual report published by the National Statistical Office on Monday, says Korea raked 12th with GDP rising 15.7 percent from the previous year to US$787.5 billion in 2005. Brazil, which ranked 15th in 2004, saw its GDP jump 31.8 percent to come in 11th place with a GDP of $796.1 billion. While Brazil improved its economic status by four notches since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in early 2003, Korea took two steps down after the Roh Moo-hyun administration came to power.
The country will find it hard to cling to 12th place too. Mexico in 13th with $768.4 billion is stagnating, but Russia in 14th with $763.6 billion and Australia in 15th with $708.1 billion are coming on strong. Russia lagged behind Korea by as much as $201.4 billion in 2002, but the gap narrowed to $23.9 billion last year.
Brazil did worse than Korea in terms of economic growth measured by national currency, growing only 2.3 percent last year while Korea grew 4 percent, but its exports grew 22.3 percent, easily outstripping Korea¡¯s 11.9 percent. And Brazil¡¯s domestic demand is rising sharply thanks to its 180 million population. The Brazilian real appreciated far more than the Korean won last year, helping the South American country race past Korea in terms of GDP translated into dollars. ¡°The Brazilian economy grew only 1.3 percent and 1.9 percent in 2001 and 2002 but improved a whopping 4.9 percent in 2004, two years after president Lula took office,¡± says Kwon Ki-su, senior researcher with the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). ¡°Now its economy has entered a full-fledged growth phase.¡±
Korea will not be able to take back its no. 11th title from Brazil for the time being as investment, the engine of growth for the economy, is moving in just the opposite way in the two countries, experts say. While the percentage of investment in GDP is on the rise from 17.9 percent in late 2003 to 19.4 percent in late 2004 and 20.4 percent in the first quarter of this year in Brazil, the figure plummeted from 28.6 percent in 2003 to 16.5 percent in the first quarter of this year in Korea with corporate investment sentiment here becoming sluggish. ¡°Investors both at home and abroad had a wait-and-see attitude in 2003, the first year when leftist Lula took power, in Brazil but they are increasing their investment in the nation as the president focuses on economic growth¡±, Kwon said.
The nation¡¯s GDP turned out to be 1/16 that of the U.S. which tops the world in terms of GDP with US $12.4872 trillion and 1/6 that of Japan which comes in second place with US $4.5588 trillion. The nation took 29th place in the world in terms of per capita gross national income, growing 14.8 percent from the previous year to US $16,291.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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