Korea’s Nominal GDP Falls to 13th Place

The Korean economy ranked 13th among 181 countries last year in gross domestic product, down a notch from 2006.

According to an International Monetary Fund report analyzed by the Korea Development Institute, nominal GDP reached 957 billion dollars last year.

The World Bank, which estimates GDP based on its calculation of foreign exchange rates, said in an earlier report that Korea’s GDP is now 13th in the world.

The fund said the Korean economy ranked 11th in 2005, but was overtaken by Russia the year after and fell to 12th. Last year, Korea was overtaken by India and fell to 13th.

The United States remained the world’s largest economy with GDP worth 13.84 trillion dollars last year. Japan was second with 4.38 trillion dollars; Germany third with 3.3 trillion dollars; China fourth with 3.25 trillion dollars; and the United Kingdom fifth with 2.77 trillion dollars.

India, who had trailed Korea in 2006, had a GDP of 1.09 trillion dollars last year, 142 billion dollars larger than Korea’s.

Korea’s GDP soared from 64 billion dollars in 1980 to 111.3 billion dollars in 1986, 264 billion dollars in 1990 and 517.3 billion dollars in 1996. In the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, however, the figure fell below 500 billion dollars, but rose to 548 billion dollars in 2002 and is now nearing one trillion dollars.