South Korea’s per capita gross national income (GNI) is expected to exceed the $30,000 mark this year, a milestone achieved 12 years after it passed the $20,000 at the expense of worsening imbalances in the economy.

According to Bank of Korea (BOK) and sources from the financial market on Sunday, the nation’s GNI per capita is projected to reach $31,243 this year based on the preliminary $23,433 from January to September. GNI per capita came at $29,745 by the end of last year.

The country’s per capita GNI, an indicator of a country’s level of development or measure of wealth, has stayed below a new milestone after it surpassed the $20,000 threshold in 2007. It also took 12 years for the country`s per capita GNI to rise to $20,000 from $10,000.

Despite improvement on individual wealth, income disparities and other conditions have worsened.

In the mid-2000s, the gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of more than 5 percent. This year’s growth is estimated at 2.7 percent, the slowest since 2.3 percent in 2012, amid worsening job market and widening disparities in the economy and society as a whole.

Imbalance in growth on national, industrial, and individual level poses greater concern.

Share of semiconductor against total exports is expected to hit a record high of 21.2 percent this year.

The gap between the ICT and non-ICT industries is expanding. Output growth in the ICT sector amounted to above 10 percent from January to September, while that of other industries fell below 2 percent over the same period.

Income disparity between the wealthy and poor is widening as well. The average income of the nation’s top 20 percent was 5.52 times that of the bottom 20 percent in the third quarter, the widest since the global financial crisis.

To reduce such social and wealth disparity in the country and reinvigorate the economy, the government under liberal President Moon Jae-in has been driving income-led growth initiatives. Since Moon took office in May last year, the government drastically hiked minimum wages and significantly reduced weekly work hours, but such policies so far have not proven to be effective in reinvigorating the country’s economy.

By Kim Yeon-joo and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]