By Kim Jae-kyoung
Staff Reporter
Korea ranked third in economic performance among OECD member countries last year, with its gross domestic product growing 0.2 percent, behind Poland and Australia, according to the organization, Thursday.
It said that Korea's robust economic performance was mainly thanks to the government-led stimulus measures to minimize the economic downturn.
According to the report by the international body, Korea's economy expanded 0.2 percent last year, the third-highest growth rate among the 21 member countries that have unveiled their preliminary growth figures.
Poland ranked top with a 1.7 percent expansion, followed by Australia with 1.4 percent. The United States, the epicenter of the global financial crisis, saw its economy shrink 2.4 percent, while Britain, France and Germany posted contractions of 5 percent, 2.2 percent and 5 percent, respectively, the report showed.
Though data from all 30 member countries have yet to be made available, observers say that the three nations would be the only ones to report expansions in their economies last year.
"Those countries who have yet to unveil their preliminary growth figures are expected to see annual contractions in their economies last year given their gross domestic product data until the third quarter," an official at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said.
It was widely expected that Asia's fourth-largest economy would contract last year for the first time in a decade, but it managed to expand on the back of the government's diverse stimulus measures, including tax benefits and extra-budget spending, which helped ease the downturn.
The Paris-based organization also expects that Korea's economy will be among the best performers this year.
It was projected to grow 4.4 percent this year, marking the highest growth among the OECD member nations, according to the report. It is much higher than the OECD average of a 1.9 percent expansion.