South Korea’s gross national income (GNI) per capita last year fell behind Taiwan’s for the first time in 20 years due to the rapid depreciation of the won against the US dollar, the Bank of Korea said in a report yesterday.
South Korea’s GNI per capita dropped 7.7 percent to US$32,661 last year, compared with Taiwan’s GNI per capita of US$33,565, the report said.
Unlike GDP, which measures the value of production in a country, GNI refers to the value of GDP plus the net income earned by its nationals, whether domestically or abroad. GNI is used to gauge the average income of a country.
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The 13 percent depreciation of the won against the greenback last year led to a decline of 8.1 percent in South Korea’s US dollar-denominated GDP, causing the nation’s GNI to retreat from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said.
However, if denominated in won, South Korea’s GDP rose 3.8 percent year-on-year last year, and its GNI per capita rose 4.3 percent annually to 42.2 million won, the central bank said.
TAIWAN’S PERFORMANCE
The New Taiwan dollar last year depreciated 6.8 percent against the US dollar — much less than the won’s decline.
Taiwan’s and South Korea’s GNI grew at a similar pace of about 4 percent last year in local currency terms, the central bank said.
In 2021, Taiwan’s GNI per capita was US$34,756, lower than South Korea’s US$35,373, the report said.
Taiwan’s NT dollar-denominated GNI per capita expanded 5.6 percent to NT$999,125 last year, similar to Taiwan’s GDP per capita, which increased 5.4 percent to NT$976,914, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
The agency forecast that Taiwan’s GNI per capita would grow 2.1 percent this year to NT$1.02 million.
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