Economic Analysis

Economic Analysis

South Korea has a market economy which ranks 15th in the world by nominal GDP and 12th by purchasing power parity (PPP), identifying it as one of the G-20 major economies. It is a high-income developed country, with an emerging economy and considered as newly industrialized country (NIC). South Korea is one of the "Four Tigers" in Southeast Asia. It is one of the world's fastest growing economies and one of the countries that undergone drastic developments in the 21st century.

South Korea's population is quite a number, with total population of 48,754,657 as of July 2011 and .23% growth rate. The female exceeds male by 1%. Age range of 15-64, also considered as the labor force, constitutes 72% of the total population. 97% of the population are Koreans and the remaining is distributed to Japanese, Americans, Chinese and other ethnic groups.

South Korea has a total of $1.467 trillion GDP as of 2010 and 6.1% real growth rate. The per capita income is $30,200 as of 2010. The average family income is $26,152<gross> and 22,928<disposable>. The income distribution of South Korea is quite average as compared to other developed nations. This idea is based on the relative Gini indexes. The Gini Index is an economic measurement of a nation's income inequality; the higher the score the more unequal. The major natural resources of Korea are Coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead, and hydropower potential. Their means of transportations are Railroads including the bullet train and defunct street cars, subways, automobile and highways, ships including ferries, and airlines both domestic and international. Their communication systems include telephones, post and the internet. The working condition in South Korea is of average status. The employee-employer relationship is guided by standards set by the Labor Standards Act. The employees have several rights similar to other Asian countries like Philippines. The salaries and benefits are also based on the western system of blue and white collar jobs. The common industries in Korea are Electronics, Automobile, Chemicals, Steel and Shipbuilding. There are more private industries that the government owned or public ones. Samsung is the leading company in 2011 which to attracts Foreign Investors to invest in Electronics industry.2nd to Samsung is POPSCO a candy, sweets and snack manufacturer. This is quite advantageous to our company which opts to offer a partly similar product.

South Korea is the seventh largest exporter and tenth largest importer in the world. Their export partners are (23.2%), U.S. (10.1%), Japan (5.8%), Hong Kong (5.3%), Singapore (3.6%) while their import partners are China (16.8%), Japan (15.3%), U.S. (9.0%), Saudi Arabia (6.1%), Australia (4.6%). For the whole year of 2010, South Korea logged a current account surplus of $28.21 billion, down from $32.79 billion the previous year and marking its fourth-largest ever surplus. But the 2010 numbers missed the bank's previous full-year target of $29 billion. The Bank of Korea <BOK >forecast that the country is expected to see another monthly surplus for January on the back of strong exports. The exchange rate as of 2010 is 1KRW:$1,153.77. It also has several trade restrictions like embargoes on foreign automobile and electronics, Tariffs on agricultural products and beverages, import tax of 8 percent on building materials for construction, licensing for intellectual properties, copyrights and trademarks of movies and TV shows, and items worth over $400 purchased outside