"If per capita GDP reaches $20,000 this year, it will be mainly thanks to high economic growth, not the exchange rate," the report reads. "The dollar has in fact risen by 20% since 1995, from W771 to 929 in 2007, causing a three-year delay in achieving the $20,000 per capita GDP," it continues.

In response, pundits argued that the ministry is playing with numbers, saying that in real terms, nobody feels this strong economy in their pockets.

Song Tae-jung, an economist at the LG Economic Research Institute, called the analysis "absurd" because it doesn't take into account the financial crisis when the won skyrocketed to 1,300 to the dollar. "In fact, between 2003 and 2005, it was simply the currency rate that contributed most to the increase of per capita GDP," he said.

Yoo Byung-kyu, chief of Hyundai Research Institute, agreed. "The delay in achieving the GDP goal was not the currency rate but a sluggish four-point-something economic growth rate," he said. "The government should have a thorough look into whether it has really improved the quality of the Korean economy, if you include laying an economic framework suitable to meeting $20,000 GDP and improved labor relations," he added.

Samsung Research Institute said that even if Korea achieves the GDP goal, there is still a wide economic gap to be crossed since GDP is only 55% of the OECD average. As of 2005, Korea ranks 24th in terms of per capita GDP among 30 OECD members and 23rd in terms of Gross National Income.

(englishnews@chosun.com )