Trade boosted N. Korea's real income by up to 4.5% since 1996
- 6 years ago
Over the past 20 years,… North Korea has enjoyed up to a four-and-a-half percent growth in real income growth through trade,… this according to South Korea's Bank of Korea.
And that trade volume is likely to spike even more once the regime opens itself to the world.
Kim Hye-sung with more.
North Korea saw trade boost its real income by up to four-point-five percent over the last two decades.
According to the Bank of Korea Monday, North Korea's estimated gains from trade between 1996 and 2016, as a portion of its income, averaged between 3-point-6 and 4-point-5 percent.
The central bank said it used trade data on the North's trading partner countries sourced from the UN, the IMF and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
In that twenty-year period, North Korea's trade volume grew three fold from 2-point-2 billion U.S. dollars to around 6-point-6 billion dollars.
The import penetration ratio, or the percentage of imports to domestic demand, which measures the openness of an economy, reached around 20 percent in 2016, up from the 13-to-18 percent range in 1996.
After a trend of growth, the import pentration ratio dropped starting in 2008 as international sanctions against the regime's nuclear weapons program took a toll.
The bank said the figure is lower than the OCED average of 36.6 percent... and South Korea's 33.9 percent, but that it is similar to the range of France and the UK's 22 percent.
"Trade with China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Korea's total trade has been falling. International sanctions against Pyongyang were ratcheted up in 2016, making it really difficult for the regime to open up its economy."
Given that the North is currently under tough international sanctions, the bank said these data show that North Korea's economy will benefit from trade, which will help boost its national income.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.
And that trade volume is likely to spike even more once the regime opens itself to the world.
Kim Hye-sung with more.
North Korea saw trade boost its real income by up to four-point-five percent over the last two decades.
According to the Bank of Korea Monday, North Korea's estimated gains from trade between 1996 and 2016, as a portion of its income, averaged between 3-point-6 and 4-point-5 percent.
The central bank said it used trade data on the North's trading partner countries sourced from the UN, the IMF and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
In that twenty-year period, North Korea's trade volume grew three fold from 2-point-2 billion U.S. dollars to around 6-point-6 billion dollars.
The import penetration ratio, or the percentage of imports to domestic demand, which measures the openness of an economy, reached around 20 percent in 2016, up from the 13-to-18 percent range in 1996.
After a trend of growth, the import pentration ratio dropped starting in 2008 as international sanctions against the regime's nuclear weapons program took a toll.
The bank said the figure is lower than the OCED average of 36.6 percent... and South Korea's 33.9 percent, but that it is similar to the range of France and the UK's 22 percent.
"Trade with China, which accounts for 90 percent of North Korea's total trade has been falling. International sanctions against Pyongyang were ratcheted up in 2016, making it really difficult for the regime to open up its economy."
Given that the North is currently under tough international sanctions, the bank said these data show that North Korea's economy will benefit from trade, which will help boost its national income.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.