North Korea's Economy Shrinks for Third Year... Foreign Trade Increases with Resumption of North Korea-China Trade

Bank of Korea Announces '2022 North Korea Economic Growth Rate Estimate'
Per Capita GNI 1.7% of South Korea
Trade Volume Increases 122%... Reflecting Base Effect

North Korea's economy has shown negative growth for the third consecutive year.

According to the "2022 North Korea Economic Growth Rate Estimate" released by the Bank of Korea on the 28th, North Korea's GDP last year was 36.7 trillion won, a 0.2% decrease compared to the previous year. This marks a slowdown for three consecutive years, following -4.5% in 2020 and -0.1% in 2021.

However, North Korea's foreign trade volume last year increased by 122.3% to 1.59 billion dollars compared to 710 million dollars the previous year. Exports rose by 94% to 160 million dollars, and imports increased by 126% to 1.43 billion dollars.

Lee Gwan-gyo, head of the National Income General Team at the Bank of Korea's Economic Statistics Bureau, explained, "Although there were negative impacts due to sanctions against North Korea and border closures caused by COVID-19, trade between North Korea and China resumed last year, and the strict border closures were eased, leading to an increase in trade volume."

Looking at trends by industry, the electricity, gas, and water supply sector (3.5%), construction industry (2.2%), and service industry (1.0%) increased, while agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (-2.1%) and manufacturing (-4.6%) decreased.

Examining North Korea's industrial structure, mining and manufacturing rose by 2.1 percentage points to 30.5% compared to the previous year, construction (10.8%) increased by 0.6 percentage points, and services (33.4%) rose by 0.5 percentage points.

On the other hand, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries (23.1%) and electricity, gas, and water supply (2.2%) fell by 0.6 percentage points and 2.6 percentage points, respectively.

North Korea's nominal Gross National Income (GNI) was 36.7 trillion won, which is about 1.7% or one-sixtieth of South Korea's level.

Per capita GNI was 1.43 million won, about 3.4% or one-thirtieth of South Korea's level.

The Bank of Korea has been estimating North Korea's economic growth rate annually since 1991 by receiving basic data related to economic activities from relevant agencies.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.