The Bank of Korea revealed its annual assessment of North Korea’s economy on Sunday, declaring the first signs of growth for three years.
In a press release, ‘North Korean Economic Growth in 2011’, the South Korean central bank asserted that North Korea’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.8% year-on-year in 2011. After a gain of 3.1% in 2008, it had shrunk for two consecutive years; 2009 (-0.9%) and 2010 (-0.5%).
The bank’s analysis suggests that agriculture, forestry and construction played a leading role in the modest improvement. The agriculture and forestry sector is estimated to have grown 5.3% off the back of a 2.1% decline last year, while the construction industry saw a 3.9% improvement off the modernization of residential buildings in Pyongyang, although the non-residential buildings sector is estimated to have fallen 24.0%.
Meanwhile, in the relevant mining sectors North Korea saw a variety of results; nonmetallic minerals mining decrease 1.7% but coal production expanded 2.0%. However, manufacturing appears to have declined by 3.0%, light industry 0.1% and heavy chemicals by 4.2%.
It was another mixed picture in the electricity, gas and water sectors, with hydro-electric generation rising off the back of Heechon Dam going online while thermal power generation declined 4.7%. Growth in the service industry transport, communication, financial services and government services sectors rose 0.3%.
North Korea’s industrial structure is mainly comprised of mining and manufacturing industries (36.5%), service industries (29.4%), agriculture (23.1%) and electricity, gas and water supply (3.1%).
Overall, the Bank of Korea estimates the North’s gross national income (GNI) in 2011 to have been about 32.4 trillion South Korean Won. Conversely, South Korea’s GNI is worth 1,240 trillion South Korean Won, some 38 times greater.
The Bank of Korea has estimated the scale of North Korea’s economy and growth rates by sector annually since 1991, although all figures are estimates and should not be taken as a precise measure of the real situation.
