Including total fertility rate, suicide rate, relative poverty
Hyundai Research Institute said in its report on July 14 that South Korea is above the average of the G7 states in terms of economic indicators but below 70 percent of them when it comes to social indicators. “The South Korean government needs to address population-related problems such as low fertility and income divide, as well as a decline in potential economic growth,” it pointed out.
The five economic indicators in the report are economic growth rate, nominal GDP, GDP per capita, scale of trade in relation to GDP, and unemployment rate. In this category, South Korea’s overall score is 1.09, higher than the average of the seven states. “The scores of the United States and Germany are 1.78 and 1.15, respectively,” the institute explained, continuing, “The average of the seven was set to 1 and the scores of Canada, France, Japan and Italy are 0.97, 0.91, 0.89 and 0.61, respectively.”
The social indicators consist of total fertility rate, suicide rate, relative poverty, Gini coefficient, and welfare budget ratio. South Korea’s score is 0.67 whereas that of France amounts to 1.2. Those of the United States and Japan are 0.84 and 0.88, respectively.
“South Korea’s economic-social indicator average is 0.88, which is equal to Japan’s and lower compared to the rest of the G7 states,” the institute said, adding, “In short, South Korea’s economic achievements are 1.09 times those of the seven whereas the former is less than 70 percent of the latter on the social development side.”