Flag: white with a red (top) and blue yin-yang symbol in the
center; there is a different black trigram from the ancient I Ching
(Book of Changes) in each corner of the white field

Economy
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Economic overview: As one of the Four Dragons of East Asia, South
Korea has achieved an incredible record of growth. Three decades ago
its GDP per capita was comparable with levels in the poorer
countries of Africa and Asia. Today its GDP per capita is nine times
India's, 14 times North Korea's, and already up with the lesser
economies of the European Union. This success has been achieved by a
unique combination of authoritarian government guidance of what is
at bottom an essentially entrepreneurial process. The government has
sponsored large-scale adoption of technology and management from
Japan and other modern nations; has successfully pushed the
development of export industries while encouraging the import of
machinery and materials at the expense of consumer goods; and has
pushed its labor force to a work effort seldom matched anywhere even
in wartime. Real GDP grew by an average 10% in 1986-91, then paused
to a "mere" 5% in 1992-93, only to move back up to 8% in 1994 and 9%
in 1995. With a much higher standard of living and with a
considerable easing of authoritarian controls, the work pace has
softened. Growth rates will probably slow down over the medium term
because of the exhaustion of former growth opportunities and the
need to deal with pollution and the other problems of success.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $590.7 billion (1995 est.)

GDP real growth rate: 9% (1995)

GDP per capita: $13,000 (1995 est.)

GDP composition by sector:
agriculture: 8%
industry: 45%
services: 47% (1991 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 4.3% (1995 est.)

Labor force: 20 million
by occupation: services and other 52%, mining and manufacturing 27%,
agriculture, fishing, forestry 21% (1991)

Unemployment rate: 2% (1995 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $69 billion
expenditures: $67 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(1995 est.)

Industries: electronics, automobile production, chemicals,
shipbuilding, steel, textiles, clothing, footwear, food processing

Industrial production growth rate: 12.2% (1995 est.)

Electricity:
capacity: 28,750,000 kW
production: 165 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 2,899 kWh (1994)

Agriculture: rice,