Korea Falls Behind Malaysia, Taiwan in Financial Industry
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
South Korea ranked 5th in Asia in terms of contributions of the financial industry to the gross domestic product (GDP) and the total output of goods and services, a Seoul-based institute said Thursday, citing data from the Asian Development Bank.
The latest edition of the Asia Economic Monitor, a semiannual report on East Asia's growth, financial vulnerability and policy issues, shows Korea's financial industry is not large enough to become the main driver of economic growth.
Among nine Asian countries, Hong Kong's financial industry has the largest share in GDP, followed by Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea, according to the Korea Center for International Finance. China came in sixth, while Japan was not in the survey list.
The result shows the country should make more effort to keep up with its Asian rivals on the road to achieve its goal of becoming a regional financial hub, the institute said.
The think tank took the ratios of commercial bank loans, outstanding debt securities and stock market capitalization to GDP into account to produce an index measuring the financial industry's contribution to the economy.
The percentage of the combined amount of the three variables in GDP was 1,248 percent in Hong Kong, followed by 507 percent in Singapore, 396 percent in Taiwan, 395 percent in Malaysia and 318 percent in South Korea.
This means that Korea's financial industry make less contributions to economic growth than those of its rival countries, according to the institute.