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South Korea joins global top 10 economies

Posted April. 22, 2021 07:28,   

Updated April. 22, 2021 07:28

한국어

South Korea has joined the rank of top 10 economies of the world, according to economic performance measured since the start of the pandemic last year. Ranks of Brazil and India fell, however, as these countries failed to control the spread of the virus.

According to CNBC on Tuesday (local time), data from the IMF revealed that South Korea was newly included in the list of top 10 economies while Brazil was not. CNBC reported that the GDP provided to the IMF’s global economic outlook data was converted to dollars for comparison.  

CNBC reported that Korea’s GDP last year reached 1.631 trillion dollars and estimated to join the ranks of the top 10 economies of the world by 2026. South Korea’s GDP decline was merely 1% lower year-on-year despite the pandemic, thanks to its successful containment of the pandemic and strong exports of semiconductors. The IMF forecasted the Korean economy to grow 3.6% this year.  

Meanwhile, Brazil fell from 10th place in 2019 to 12th place. The number of accumulated confirmed cases in Brazil exceeds 14 million, the third largest in the world. Accumulated deaths are the second largest in the world at around 380,000. CNBC pointed out that President Jair Borsonaro lack of action on lockdown by playing down the threats of the pandemic worsened economic damage. The country’s GDP fell by 4.1% last year.  

India dropped to sixth place last year from fifth place of the previous year. The number of accumulated confirmed cases in India has reached to about 15.62 million, the second largest in the world. The U.K., the first among countries to roll out vaccinations, rose to fifth place, overtaking India. The U.S., China, Japan, and Germany ranked first to fourth place for both 2019 and 2020.


jyr0101@donga.com