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South Korea

Headline economic indicators for South Korea, with the most recent official readings.

Prices

Prices — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
Inflation rate · 2.1% -0.20 (-8.6%)
Consumer price index · 135.0 +2.81 (+2.1%)
Inflation rate (monthly) · 2.9% -0.21 (-6.9%)
Consumer price index (monthly) · 127.0 +0.40 (+0.3%)
House price index (quarterly) · 145.9 +1.08 (+0.7%)
House price inflation, year on year (quarterly) · 2.5% +0.71 (+40.0%)
Real house price index (quarterly) · 105.2 -0.41 (-0.4%)
Real house price growth, year on year (quarterly) · -0.5% -0.19 (-66.7%)
GDP deflator inflation · 3.1% -0.94 (-23.1%)

GDP

GDP — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
GDP growth rate · 1.0% -1.00 (-49.7%)
GDP per capita · 36,226.97 -11.67 (-0.0%)
GDP growth, quarter on quarter · 1.0% +0.33 (+52.7%)
GDP growth, year on year (quarterly) · 3.4% -0.40 (-10.7%)
Industrial production, year on year (monthly) · -0.9% -6.74 (-114.5%)
GDP per capita, long-run history · 41,321 +1,043 (+2.6%)
GDP · 1,872,374,961,553.15 -3,013,247,854 (-0.2%)
GDP, PPP · 3,262,583,720,598 +103,111,377,211 (+3.3%)
GDP per capita, PPP · 63,125 +2,074 (+3.4%)
GDP per capita growth · 1.1% -0.79 (-41.0%)
GNI per capita · 37,880 +1,130 (+3.1%)
Agriculture to GDP · 1.5% +0.01 (+0.4%)
Industry to GDP · 34.3% +0.43 (+1.3%)
Manufacturing to GDP · 27.4% +0.81 (+3.0%)
Services to GDP · 57.2% -0.27 (-0.5%)
Household consumption to GDP · 48.0% -0.46 (-1.0%)
Gross capital formation to GDP · 29.1% -0.84 (-2.8%)
Gross savings to GDP · 35.6% +0.57 (+1.6%)

Labour

Labour — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
Unemployment rate · 2.7% -0.10 (-3.6%)
Unemployment rate (monthly) · 2.6% -0.10 (-3.7%)
Labour force participation rate · 64.4% -0.11 (-0.2%)
Female labour force participation rate · 56.8% -0.04 (-0.1%)
Youth unemployment rate · 6.7% +0.26 (+4.1%)
Employment to population ratio · 62.6% -0.05 (-0.1%)
Employment in agriculture · 5.1% -0.09 (-1.8%)
Employment in industry · 23.4% -0.28 (-1.2%)
Employment in services · 71.5% +0.37 (+0.5%)

Money

Money — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
Real interest rate · 1.0% +0.40 (+63.0%)
Central bank policy rate · 3.0% +0.25 (+9.1%)
Real effective exchange rate (monthly) · 92.7 +2.85 (+3.2%)
Nominal effective exchange rate (monthly) · 92.0 +2.84 (+3.2%)
Private sector credit to GDP (quarterly) · 191.5% -6.55 (-3.3%)
Credit-to-GDP gap (quarterly) · -15.13 pp -6.46 (-74.6%)
Debt service ratio, private sector (quarterly) · 19.3% -0.60 (-3.0%)
Debt service ratio, households (quarterly) · 11.5% -0.30 (-2.5%)
Debt service ratio, non-financial corporations (quarterly) · 35.4% -1.00 (-2.7%)
Broad money to GDP · 162.7% +0.61 (+0.4%)
Private sector credit to GDP · 160.3% -3.17 (-1.9%)
Lending rate · 4.2% -0.53 (-11.3%)
Bank deposit rate · 2.7% -0.75 (-21.5%)
Stock market capitalization to GDP · 147.2% +64.18 (+77.3%)
Bank nonperforming loans · 0.3% +0.02 (+8.9%)
Official exchange rate · 1,422.44 +59.07 (+4.3%)
Long-term government bond yield (monthly) · 4.5% +0.17 (+3.9%)
Three-month interest rate (monthly) · 3.2% +0.20 (+6.7%)

Trade

Trade — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
Current account to GDP · 6.6% +1.24 (+23.3%)
Exports to GDP · 45.8% +1.40 (+3.2%)
Imports to GDP · 40.6% +0.31 (+0.8%)
Trade to GDP · 86.4% +1.72 (+2.0%)
Exports of goods and services · 856,855,674,924.23 +24,966,502,833 (+3.0%)
Imports of goods and services · 760,157,311,935.1 +4,671,110,413 (+0.6%)
Trade balance, goods and services (annual) · 103,553,800,000 +22,072,200,000 (+27.1%)
Current account balance (annual) · 123,053,800,000 +23,080,300,000 (+23.1%)
Foreign direct investment to GDP · 0.8% +0.16 (+23.1%)
Remittances received to GDP · 0.4% -0.01 (-2.8%)
Total reserves, including gold · 436,572,785,443.93 +18,354,136,542 (+4.4%)
Reserves in months of imports · 6.5 +0.26 (+4.3%)
Merchandise exports (monthly) · 116,779 +16,267 (+16.2%)
Merchandise imports (monthly) · 70,900 +5,724 (+8.8%)
Current account to GDP (quarterly) · 20.9% +4.90 (+30.7%)

Government

Government — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
Government debt to GDP · 47.8% -0.74 (-1.5%)
Government revenue to GDP · 25.8% -1.58 (-5.8%)
Government expense to GDP · 28.3% -2.98 (-9.5%)
Tax revenue to GDP · 13.3% -1.31 (-8.9%)
Government budget balance to GDP · -1.8% -0.77 (-75.1%)
Government consumption to GDP · 17.6% +0.16 (+0.9%)
Education spending to GDP · 5.4% +0.85 (+18.7%)
Health spending to GDP · 8.7% +0.11 (+1.3%)

Demography

Demography — South Korea
Indicator Value Change
Population · 51,684,564 -66,501 (-0.1%)
Population, long-run history · 51,731 -14.31 (-0.0%)
Population growth · -0.1% -0.20 (-273.0%)
Life expectancy · 83.6 +0.20 (+0.2%)
Fertility rate · 0.75 +0.03 (+3.7%)
Birth rate · 4.7 +0.20 (+4.4%)
Death rate · 7.0 +0.10 (+1.4%)
Urban population share · 81.2% +0.01 (+0.0%)
Population aged 65 and over · 20.3% +1.06 (+5.5%)
Under-five mortality rate · 2.8 -0.10 (-3.4%)
Population density · 530.2 +0.39 (+0.1%)
Net migration · 65,731 -10,232 (-13.5%)
Gini index · 32.9 +0.20 (+0.6%)

Source: Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Translated titles are not official BIS translations.

Source: Bolt, J. and van Zanden, J.L. (2024), Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update, Journal of Economic Surveys, 1-41, DOI 10.1111/joes.12618. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. The original sources are listed on each page.

Source: OECD (2026), Key short-term economic indicators, https://sdmx.oecd.org. Original data: Statistics Korea, Bank of Korea, National Bureau of Statistics of China, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and Labour Bureau (India), BPS-Statistics Indonesia, INE (Chile), DANE (Colombia), INEC (Costa Rica), Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Statistics New Zealand; GDP for the other countries is national accounts reported to the OECD. India's prices are the index for industrial workers. Colombia's production index covers manufacturing; Israel's is a proxy based on manufacturing. Chile's unemployment series was spliced by the OECD across the 2010 survey change, not by INE. Trade, current account and interest rates come from each country's customs authority, statistics office (Saudi Arabia: GASTAT) or central bank (Russia: Bank of Russia); the instrument and maturity of the rates differ by country. Seasonal adjustment and the 2015-based indices are the OECD's.

All data sources

Original sources of these estimates

GDP pc: 2008 - 2022: Total Economy Database the Conference Board for all countries included in TED. Otherwise UN national accounts statistics

South Korea

Economies nearby

Comparable readings from neighbouring economies.