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Country Commercial Guides for FY 2000: Korea

Report prepared by U.S. Embassy Seoul, released July 1999
Note*

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CHAPTER X. APPENDICES

Economic and Trade Statistics

Appendix A: Country Data
-Population: 46.0 million (1998)
-Population growth rate: 1.0 percent
-Religions: Buddhist (28%); Christian (24%); Other (4%); No affiliation (44%). Strong Confucian traditions.
-Government system: Representative democracy with a popularly-elected president, who is Chief of State and Head of Government, and a unicameral National Assembly. -Languages: Korean, with English widely taught in schools.
-Work Week: Monday to Saturday; Average work week of 47.5 hours.

Appendix B: Domestic Economy (In million U.S. Dollars unless otherwise noted) 

				1996	1997   	 1998	     1999(e)	
GDP (billions)	                484.4	476.6 	 321.3        400.0

Real GDP growth rate	          6.8	  5.0     -5.8	        4.0
(percent)	

GDP per capita	  	       10,543  10,590 	 6,800        8,500
(US dollars) 

Government Spending 	 	 21.9	 22.2 	  23.4         25.0
   as % of GDP

Retail inflation rate	    	  4.9	  4.5  	   7.5          2.0
(percent)

Foreign ExchangeReserve        33,237  40,060   52,041	     58,000
           End period
Average Exchange Rate
(won per US$1) 	 	        804.8	951.1  1,398.9	    1,200.0

Gross Foreign Debt	      157,500 158,000  149,350      140,000

Debt Service Ratio		  7.5	  7.5	   9.0		8.0
U.S. Military/
Economic Assistance		    0	    0	     0		  0
Appendix C: Trade (In million U.S. Dollars) 
			1996	  1997	   1998	    1999/1

Total ROK Exports	129,715	 136,164  132,313   30,342

Total ROK Imports	150,339	 144,616   93,282   25,570

ROK Exports to U.S.	 21,670	  21,625   22,805    5,820

ROK Imports from U.S.	 33,305	  30,122   20,403    5,839

U.S. Share of ROK
 Imports (percent)	   22.2	    20.8     21.9     22.8
/1 First Quarter 1999

Appendix D: Investment Statistics Table 1: SUMMARY OF FOREIGN EQUITY INVESTMENT NOTIFICATIONS (US$ millions) 

			New/Additional	 Cumulative Approvals/
			Notifications
1962-66			      47.4   (39)	         47.4     (42)
1967-71			     218.6  (350)		226.0    (392)
1972-76			     879.4  (851)	      1,145.4  (1,243)
1977-81			     720.6  (244)	      1,866.0  (1,487)
1982-86		      1,767.7  (565)	      3,633.7  (2,052)
1987		      1,060.2  (363)	      4,693.9  (2,415)
1988		      1,282.7  (342)	      5,976.6  (2,757)
1989		      1,090.3  (336)	      7,066.9  (3,093)
1990		        802.5  (295)	      7,869.4  (3,399)
1991		      1,396.0  (286)	      9,265.5  (3,696)
1992			     894.5  (233)	     10,163.4  (3,905)
1993		      1,044.3  (274)	     11,208.5  (4,178)
1994		      1,316.5  (414)	     12,525.1  (4,592)
1995		      1,941.3  (556)	     14,466.4  (5,148)
1996		      3,202.6  (596)	     17,669.0  (5,744)
1997		      6,970.9  (638)	     24,640.1  (6,382)
1998		      8,852.4  (797)	     33,492.0  (7,179)
1999 Jan-Mar	  2,003.8  (264)	     35,496.2  (7,443)
Notes:- Recorded on an approval or notification acceptance basis. - Figures in parenthesis indicate number of new projects. Source: Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE).

Table 2: NOTIFICATIONS/APPROVALS OF FOREIGN EQUITY INVESTMENT BY MAJOR COUNTRIES, 1962-Mar 1999 (US$ million) 

			Total	U.S.	Japan	Europe	Others

1962-76		 1,145.4	255.3	725.1	58.7	106.3
		 (1,266)	(188)	(985)	(35)	 (58)
1977-81			720.6	235.7	300.9	64.2	119.8
			(251)	 (67)	(132)	(26)	 (26)
1982-86		1,767.7	581.6	876.2  117.7	192.2
			(579)	(168)	(276)	(58)	 (77)
1987		 1,063.3	255.1	497.0  149.6	161.6
			(372)	 (93)	(206)	(31)	 (42)
1988		1,282.7	284.4	696.2  217.0	 85.1
			(352)	(104)	(177)	(45)	 (26)
1989		1,090.3	 28.8	461.5  160.1	139.9
			(349)	 (97)	(145)	(59)	 (48)
1990		  802.5	317.5	235.8  177.9	 71.3
			(306)	 (84)	(145)	(39)	 (38)
1991		1,396.0	296.3	266.2  733.3	100.3
			(297)	 (86)	(112)	(51)	 (48)
1992		  894.5	379.2	155.2  231.6	128.5
			(233)	 (70)	 (72)	(42)	 (49)
1993		1,044.3	340.7	285.9	295.3	122.4
			(274)	 (69)	 (85)	 (42)	 (78)
1994		1,316.5	310.9	424.4	226.7	354.5
			(414)	(115)	(132)	 (50)	(117)
1995		1,941.3	644.9	417.8	470.1	408.5
			(556)	(161)	(168)	 (90)	(137)
1996		3,202.6	876.1	254.6  1058.3  1013.7
			(596)	(167)	(154)	(124)	(151)
1997		6,970.9 3,189.6	265.7 2,409.4 1,106.2
			(664)	(181)	(134)	(131)	(218)
1998		8,852.4 2,974.5	503.8 2,968.4 2,405.7
			(831)	(261)	(179)	(158)	(233)
1999 Jan-Mar         2,003.8	747.6	118.7	880.5	257.0
			(264)	 (74)	 (42)	 (47)	(101)

TOTAL	            35,496.2 12,003.4 6,454.7 0,842.3  ,195.8
1962 Mar 1999  	     (7,663)  (2,175) (3,148) (1,229) (1,111)
Notes: - Recorded on an approval or notification acceptance basis.
- Figures in parenthesis indicate number of new projects. Investments by multiple sources were counted individually, resulting in larger number of projects compared to table 1.

Source: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).

EQUITY INVESTMENT BY INDUSTRY, 1996-Mar 1999
(US$ millions) 

	        		 Cumulative
	         1962-Mar '99	1996	1997	1998	  1999 Jan-Mar
	     ----------------	-----	-----	-----     ------------
Agriculture/
Fishery       225.6 (98) - -	39.1  	(7)	157.3  	   (8) 4.6  (-)
-Agriculture 217.0  (55) - -	38.9    (6)	156.9      (4) 4.6  (-)
-Fishery       8.7  (43) - -	 0.1    (1)	  0.4      (4) - -
Mining	      74.0  (49)	18.2    (1)	 16.2      (1)21.7  (1)	- -
Manufac-
turing    19,348.5 (3,962)   1,930.1  (196)   2,347.9	 (186)5,735.3 (266)	655.6  (77)
-Food 
Process-
ing   	  2,727.4  (245)       252.9   (13)	850.6     (9)718.9 (18)	0.6  (4)
-Textiles
/Clothing   527.1  (318)        21.0    (5)	 85.2     (9) 18.0 (22)	27.0  (11)
-Wood
/Paper    2,180.5   (84)        83.3    (5)	196.0     (3)1,643.8(7)	5.5  (1)
-Chemicals3,576.5  (534)       388.5   (39) 	234.6    (24)755.6 (41)	57.8 (8)
-Fertilizers 50.2    (8)- - - -	0.2     (1)	  - -
-Pharmaceu-
ticals      720.3  (103)       31.9 	(1)	 43.7     (4)134.4  (7) 32.9 (1)
-Petroleum  946.6   (19)      214.5     (1)	  3.0     (1)  0.9  (-)	- -
-Ceramics   647.2  (105)       47.0     (4)	 53.7     (4)279.0  (7)	41.0  (1)
-Metals	    333.8  (242)       13.0    (11)	 13.8     (8)  7.2  (8)	65.5  (3)
-Machinery1,874.9  (797)      158.6    (56)	166.1    (38)587.5 (52)	133.1  (14)
-Elec-
tronics	  4,061.6  (642)      435.6    (42)     291.0     (51)1,377.2  (61)227.2  (21)
-Transport 
Equip.	 1,895.4   (206)      271.4     (8)	394.5     (15) 179.7  (13)	59.4 (7)
-Others    207.0   (459)       12.5    (11)	 15.8     (20)	32.8  (29)	5.8  (6)

Services 15,848.1(3,334)    1,254.3   (398)   4,567.8    (444) 2,938.0 (522) 1,343.6(187)
-Electricity 
& Gas     500.5     (8)	       34.0     (2)	 45.0      (1)344.0  (2)	51.5  (2)
-Constr.  180.7    (65)        31.7     (9)	 64.1     (14)	5.2  (10)	2.5  (5)
-Wholesale
/Retail	2,159.5   (310)       296.9    (62)     891.8     (66)474.3 (50)	207.6(17)
-Foreign 
Trade	1,256.9 (1,442)	      126.2   (151)    233.2     (172) 284.2(239)62.3 (81)
-Restau-
rants	  108.5   (146)	        8.1    (22)	 3.0      (18) 18.0  (18)	0.7 (10)
-Hotels	5,712.2   (141)	      228.4    (10)  2,595.6      (17)302.7  (8)	203.3  (5)
-Trnsprt/
Wrhouse	  258.4   (146)	      149.7    (27)	32.8      (19)12.4  (17)	1.1  (9)
-Banking2,621.9   (136)	      249.7    (11)    264.7      (6)505.6  (13)	190.3  (6)
-Insurance409.1    (23)	       16.0     (3)	15.1      (2) 74.0  (-)	45.6  (-)
-Real 
Estate	   3.9     (17)		1.3  	(2)- -	 2.1  	  (12) 0.6  (3)
-Others2,636.5    (920)	      112.4    (99)    421.8     (129)915.7  (153)	578.0  (49)
  
TOTAL35,496.2   (7,443)	    3,202.6   (596)  6,970.9     (638)8,852.4  (797)	2,003.8  (264)
Notes: - Recorded on an approval or notification acceptance basis. - Figures in parenthesis indicate number of new projects.

Source: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE).

[end of document]
 
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