<Korea> Sings of recovery.
T.R.
In case you are interested in this type of news. It is beginning to like a bit of recovery to me,certainly looks better than this time last year.
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(Courtsey:Korea Times)
Korea Posts 2nd Largest Surplus Among OECD Members
12/11(±Ý) 16:18
Korea posted the second-largest current account surplus among the 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members during the first half of this year, a report released by the National Statistical Office showed yesterday.
Korea's semiannual current account surplus totaled $21.6 billion, second only to Japan, which posted $57.4 billion. In acute contrast, Korea suffered a current account deficit of $8.1 billion in 1997.
According to the report, Korea's foreign exchange reserves rose from $20.3 billion at the end of last year to $45 billion at the end of this past August. The end-of-August figure put Korea at fifth place among the OECD members, following Japan ($208.2 billion), Germany ($79.9 billion), Spain ($68 billion) and the United States ($62 billion).
But, in terms of gross domestic product growth, Korea was the worst performer. The Korean economy contracted at an annualized rate of 5.3 percent during the first half, a major deterioration from a 5.5 percent gain in 1997. Turkey performed most strongly with a 7.1 percent rise, followed by Finland (6.4 percent) and Mexico (5.4 percent).
In current prices, Korea's GDP amounted to $442.6 billion last year, the ninth largest among the OECD members. Last year, Korea exported $136.2 billion and imported $144.6 billion, ranking 10th in both categories.
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