Avg. Income Drops Below 20,000 US Dollars

Per capita income in Korea dropped below 20,000 dollars last year, the lowest since the financial crisis of the late 1990s, the National Statistical Office said yesterday.

The country`s per capita income ranking also plummeted to 42nd last year from 28th in 2007.

According to a preliminary report by the statistical office, gross national income per capita slipped to 19,231 dollars last year, down 11.4 percent from a year ago.

GNI per capita dropped below 10,000 dollars in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 1997-98 and recovered to that level in 2000. Since then, it had steadily grown to top 20,000 dollars in 2007. The global financial crisis, however, has caused the figure to fall below 20,000 dollars.

The fall in the figure is blamed on the weak won that led to a steep decline in dollar-denominated income.

Korea`s economic growth was 2.2 percent last year, down from the forecast of 2.5 percent of the central bank made last month.

Based on the report, the International Monetary Fund downgraded Korea’s per capita GDP ranking 14 notches to 42nd.

jaeyuna@donga.com