Economy of South Korea

The main articles are:

• South Korea
• World economy

GDP

Main article: South Korea's GDP

Financial system

Modern monetary theory

Main article: Modern Monetary Theory (SDT)

The financial policy of the country corresponds to the Modern Monetary Theory (SDT).

Total non-financial debt

2022: Aggregate non-financial debt

National debt

2023: State debt - 54% of GDP

Household debts

2024: Very high level of debt burden of the population

After the 2008 crisis, most advanced economies "redistributed" debts: household debts decreased, and public debt increased. For example, in the United States, the national debt from 60% of GDP grew to 120%, while household debts fell from 100% to 75% of GDP (at the end of 2023).

But not all countries have taken this path. In, South Korea, and Switzerland Australia Sweden the public debt is kept at safe levels of about 40% of GDP, but household debts have already exceeded 100% of GDP. Against the background of high interest rates, this creates huge risks.

This is especially acute in South Korea, where there is one of the highest levels of debt in the world, given the local specifics - the system of long-term lease of Jeongse.

The situation where debts literally strangle households was unsurprisingly the inspiration for the script for the series "Game of Squid." Apparently, for many Koreans, participation in the survival game is perceived as a metaphor for their real struggle with the debt hole.

Sovereign Wealth Fund

Currency

• Cryptocurrencies in South Korea

Digital stench

Main article: South Korea's Digital Howl

Inflation/Deflation

2014: Inflation for 5 years 15%

Accumulated inflation over 5 years in the G-20 countries at the end of 2024:

Argentina: 13,910%

Turkey: 734%

Russia: 46%

Brazil: 35%

India: 34%

Mexico: 31%

South Africa: 28%

Britain: 25%

Holland: 24%

US: 23%

Australia: 21%

Germany: 21%

Spain: 19%

Canada: 19%

Italy: 18%

Singapore: 17%

France: 15%

South Korea: 15%

Indonesia: 15%

Saudi Arabia: 13%

Japan: 9%

Switzerland: 6%

China: 6%

2019: The first deflation in the country's history

Electronic Payment Systems

2022: 27.5% of the population pay for smartphone purchases

2020:77% of Internet users prefer cashless payment

Investments

2024: 3rd largest direct investment in Kazakhstan - $1.22 billion

In April 2025, the report of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was published, from which the volume of direct investment in Kazakhstan by the end of 2024 became known. Read more here.

Gold and foreign exchange reserves

2020: 9th place in terms of gold and foreign exchange reserves: $443,098 million for December

Energy carriers

2023

Reduction of LNG imports

11% of oil through the Strait of Hormuz goes to South Korea

Main article: Strait of Hormuz

2022: Increase in coal imports from Russia by 24%

Russian coal miners, through the provision of discounts, increased deliveries to South Korea by 24% in 2022, displacing the main player in this market - Australia. The growth of supplies was facilitated by a short transport arm from the Far East, as well as relatively affordable freight rates, which periodically allowed cargo to be sent to South Korea even from the ports of the European part of the Russian Federation.

Power

2025

2025: Coal is South Korea's most common power source

Traditional fossil fuels, including natural gas, oil and coal, continue to be actively used around the world. This is evidenced by Dewesoft data, which TAdviser got acquainted with in early October 2025. Read more here

26 operating nuclear reactors

The number of operating nuclear reactors in countries around the world according to Bloomberg as of February 2025:

• UNITED STATES: 94
• China: 57
• France: 57
• Russia: 36
• South Korea: 26
• India: 20
• Canada: 17
• Ukraine: 15
• Japan: 14
• United Kingdom: 9
• Spain: 7
• Czech Republic: 6
• Pakistan: 6
• Sweden: 6
• Belgium: 5
• Finland: 5
• Slovakia: 5
• Hungary: 4
• Switzerland: 4
• UAE: 4
• Argentina: 3
• Belarus: 2
• Brazil: 2
• Bulgaria: 2
• Mexico: 2
• Romania: 2
• South Africa: 2
• Armenia: 1
• Iran: 1
• Netherlands: 1
• Slovenia: 1

2024: South Korea - 33.7% dependent on Russian uranium

In September 2024, it became known that France was the country with the greatest dependence on the supply of Russian uranium among unfriendly countries. According to Eurostat and UN Comtrade, from January 2023 to June 2024, 60.5% of France's uranium imports fell on Russia, which is equivalent to $428.6 million. This figure makes France the leader in dependence on Russian supplies of enriched uranium among other countries, such as South Korea, Germany and the United States. Read more here

2022: Number of operating nuclear reactor plants - 24

2020: Energy consumption per capita

and

Mining

2022: Top 10 leading countries in the production of critical raw materials

Industry

2024: Size of industrial production - $0.5 trillion

2023: South Korea has 1,012 industrial robots per 10,000 workers

South Korea has become the first country in the world to account for more than 10% of jobs in the industrial sector. This is stated in a study by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the results of which were published on November 20, 2024.

In 2023, there were 1,012 industrial robots per 10,000 workers in South Korea: the density of robots in this country has been increasing by an average of 5% annually since 2018. Two key consumers of such installations are the automotive sector and the electronics industry. In addition, machines are actively being introduced in other areas - from the restaurant business to healthcare.

It is noted that in South Korea the density of robots is more than twice as high as in any other country, with the exception of Singapore, where there are 770 robots per 10 thousand employees. South Korea's leadership is partly due to the local government's massive investment in the robotics industry, which authorities see as a way to address the decline in the working-age population caused by low birth rates.

Earlier, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea announced a new basic plan for the development of smart robots, providing for investments in the public and private sector in the amount of $2.4 billion by 2030. This initiative determines the direction of development of robotics in key industries, including manufacturing, services, agriculture, logistics, health, defense and social security.

The IFR study also notes that the average density of robots on a global scale in 2023 reached a record 162 units per 10 thousand employees. In seven years, this figure has more than doubled.^[1]

2021: 1,000 robots per 10,000 employees

Metallurgy

2024: Raw steel production - 64 million tonnes

Information Technology

South Korea IT Market

Main article: South Korea's IT market

Main article: Smartphones (South Korea market)

Communication

Main Article: Communications (South Korea Market)

Semiconductors (South Korea market)

2025: $23 billion earmarked to support the country's chip production

In April 2025, the South Korean government announced that it plans to increase the amount of financial support for its chipmakers to 33 trillion won ($23.23 billion). This will be done by expanding the additional budget, and $2 billion will be provided in the form of loans with a low percentage until 2027. The expansion of support is associated with an increase in uncertainty in the conditions of the threatening semiconductor industry, which is very important for the South Korean economy, duties from the United States.^[2]

2024: $55 billion earmarked for semiconductor industry

2023: Attracting 150 companies and $234 billion in investments to build a microelectronic cluster

In March 2023, the Ministry of Trade and Industry of South Korea announced a project to attract 150 companies and $234 billion in investments to create by 2042 in the capital region the world's largest microelectronic cluster^[3]. Plans to build five high-tech chip factories were also reported.

2022: South Korea accounts for 25% of global chip manufacturing capacity

2021: Allocation of a subsidy of 1.5 trillion won and 1 trillion won of preferential loans for chip development

In light of fourth technological transition the country, it became important to develop non-memory sectors, competing the Taiwan TSMC with other companies. In addition, the Korean ecosystem semiconductor industry has significant vulnerabilities in the workforce, materials components and equipment. According to the relevant ministry, in the next 10 years, the industry will need approximately 150 thousand new personnel Why^[4]

In this regard, guided by the need to develop system semiconductors, the Korean government adopted the strategies "System Semiconductor Vision and Strategy" (2019) and "K-Semiconductor (Belt) Strategy" (2021). Both documents are aimed at increasing competitiveness and expanding domestic production by strengthening the industry ecosystem^[5]. Subsidies in the amount of 1.5 trillion won and soft loans in the amount of 1 trillion won will be allocated for the development of the next generation chips.

With the help of a set of support measures, the Republic of Korea intends to more than double the annual supply of chips abroad and reach $200 billion in 2030 from $99.2 billion in 2020. The investment plan for the decade amounted to 510 trillion won (~ $453 billion^[6] [1]Learn more here.

Internet

Main article: Internet access (South Korea market)

Internet trade

2024: Online sales share of total retail - 27%

2021: Online sales share of total retail - 30.1%

Gaming industry

2018: For pumping someone else's account, games began to be sent to jail for 2 years

In early December 2018, an amendment to the law on the development of the gaming industry was adopted in South Korea, which will prohibit residents of the country from boosting accounts. The innovation will come into force in 6 months - in May 2019. The penalty for boosting will be imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to $18,000. Read more here.

R&D

2022

Foreign trade

Main article: South Korea's Foreign Trade

Weapon

Main article: Weapons in South Korea

Mechanical engineering

2025: 30.9% of the world's ships used are built in Korea

2019: 3.6 million cars produced

Retail

Main article: Retail in South Korea

Transport

2023: Eleventh in the world in terms of the number of cars sold - 1.7 million units

2022

563 public ESVs per 1,000 electric vehicles

Access to the roads of unmanned buses

On December 27, 2022, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of South Korea announced the start of operation of the country's first unmanned buses. During the three-month pilot project, you can make a trip by such a car for free. Read more here

Advertisement

2021:20% of the population bought goods after advertising them from bloggers

Tourism

2023: Growth of tourist flow from Russia by 2.5 times

In 2023, approximately 158.8 thousand Russian tourists visited South Korea. This is about 2.5 times (165%) more than the previous year. Such a significant increase is associated with interest in Korean culture - music, cinema, games, as well as the popularity of excursion, educational and medical tourism to the country. Such data on April 1, 2024 is provided by the Russian Union of Travel Industry (PCT).

Lee Gyeongming, director of the Moscow office of the National Tourism Organization of Korea (NOTK), notes that among Russian travelers there are a lot of fans of Hallyu - the Korean wave associated with the popularization of national culture, pop music, cinema, television series (dramas) and games around the world. The Korean wave brings significant revenue to the South Korean budget.

Approximately 158.8 thousand Russian tourists visited South Korea

For Russia, this [2024] year we have prepared several advertising projects, we will develop and support them together with tour operators offering tours to South Korea, says Gyeongming.

It is noted that a large number of tourists are attracted by the desire to observe the change of seasons in Korea. In particular, from January to March, these are themes of flowering, as well as holidays and festivals dedicated to the Buddha's birthday. From April to June, sea holidays are of interest, from June to September - red maples, from August to November - winter sports.

The popularity of educational tourism in the country is due to the fact that young people and adolescents actively watch Korean dramas, listen to pop music and want to learn Korean. There are specially developed routes to filming locations for such films and TV series as "Playing Squid," "Parasites," "Kingdom," etc. Travel to South Korea for medical purposes is most often associated with plastic surgery and severe illness, in particular malignant tumors.^[7]

2018: $13 billion in tourist spending in the country

Alcohol market

2018: Minimum age to purchase alcoholic beverages

Agriculture

2019: High levels of pesticide use in agriculture

Labour market

2022: Proportion of workers aged 65 or over - above 30%

2018

Protection against overwork by forcing computers to shut down

Authorities in the South Korean capital will protect workers from overhauls by forcibly shutting down computers. The corresponding initiative will begin to be implemented in Seoul state institutions from March 30, 2018.

Working hours in South Korea are one of the longest in the world. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), employees of government agencies, including law enforcement and customs, work on average 2739 hours a year in South Korea. This is about a thousand hours more than in other developed countries, where the annual working time averages 1736 hours. In the United States, government employees work an average of 1834 hours, reports the New York Post.^[8]

In Seoul, they decided to fight the practice of reworking, for which computers will be forcibly turned off in all government agencies on Friday evening. The initiative is planned to be implemented in three stages. From the end of March, computers on Fridays will be disconnected at 20:00 local time. In a month, the end of the working day and the shutdown of computers will be shifted another half hour earlier - at 19:30, and from May 2018, office PCs will go out on Fridays at 19:00.

According to an official statement from Seoul Municipality, the program affects all employees, however, in special cases, an exception may be made for workers. Interestingly, 67% of civil servants have already asked not to extend the "shutdown" to them and allow them to stay at work on Fridays, BBC News reports.^[9]

In January 2018, South Korea's Minister for Gender Equality and the Family, Chung Hyun Back, called recycling one of the reasons for the country's low birth rate. The authorities also expect to improve demographics by reducing the duration of the working day.

Reduce workweek by 16 hours

On March 1, 2018, South Korea adopted a bill that reduces the working week by 16 hours, thanks to which the authorities expect to increase the birth rate in the country.

The law, which will reduce the working week for South Koreans from 68 to 52 hours, will come into force in July. Of these, 40 hours is the main time (eight hours a day with five working days), and 12 is overtime. Citizens under 18 will be able to work 35 hours a week instead of 40. 

The new law primarily focuses on large companies with at least 300 employees. Small businesses will have to comply with the new rules from 2020.

Experts from the Economic Research Institute of South Korea estimate the total losses of employers from the new initiative at $11 billion per year.

A bill to reduce the working week was proposed by President Moon Jae-in, elected in 2017. At the beginning of 2018, he defended an increase in the minimum wage by 16%.

It is assumed that increasing free time will improve the quality of life of Korean citizens and increase labor productivity and employment in the country. In addition, supporters of the law are waiting for an increase in the birth rate, the indicator of which in 2017 set an anti-record.^[10]

If Koreans rejoice in reducing the working week to 52 hours, then the Germans demand to reduce it to 28 hours. In particular, in early February 2018, such a requirement was supported by the largest trade union IG Metall in Germany, uniting almost 4 million people employed in the industrial sector.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2016, South Korea was second only to Mexico and Costa Rica in terms of the duration of the working week. The OECD does not include China and India, which, according to experts, work the most.

In Russia, according to the Labor Code, you can work no more than 40 hours a week, and the average Russian gives work 1974 hours a year, or about 38 hours a week. Deputies are less supposed to work in ours. In 2017 , they reduced the working day on Friday - to five hours.

2015: More than 22.6% of workers work 60 or more hours a week

Unemployment

2023: Youth unemployment - 5.4%

2021: Record unemployment in 20 years - 5.4%

South Korea's unemployment rate has risen to its highest in 20 years, raising concerns that a stronger scar in the economy may be lurking behind the export-driven recovery process.

The unemployment rate jumped to 5.4% in January 2021 from 4.5% revised last month to reach its highest level since the Asian financial crisis.

The result beat all previous forecasts, with the economy losing nearly a million jobs compared to last year and suffering its biggest losses since 1998.

2020: Unemployment rate - 4.1%

2018: Unemployed youth leave the country

South Korea's high youth unemployment rates are forcing more and more young people to leave the country to work abroad. One-third is heading to Japan, which has experienced severe labor shortages in recent years. Other popular destinations are the United States, Singapore and Australia.

Incomes of the population

2023: Minimum wage - $1,333

2022: There are 1.254 million millionaires in the country

2019: Real hourly minimum wage - $8.6

The real hourly minimum wage is the statutory minimum wage paid to an employee for one hour worked, adjusted for inflation. Reflects the purchasing power of hourly earnings.

Pensions

2020: Pension granted from 62, real retirement age for men - 66, for women - 65

Consumption

2024: Dog meat ban

In January 2023, South Korea's parliament approved a landmark law banning the consumption of dog meat.

2023

15% of the population regularly consume sweets

Fish consumption is higher than meat consumption

2022: Vegetarian share increases to 2.5%

2019: Pork is the most consumed type of meat

Notes