[THE INVESTOR] South Korea will likely see its per capita gross domestic product touch the US$30,000 mark in 2018, a parliamentary report forecast on Sept. 20.

If the mark is reached in two years, it will have taken 12 years since South Korea reached the $20,000 level in 2006.

Other leading economies of the world have spent 8.2 years on average in raising their per capita income from $20,000 to $30,000.

Switzerland needed only two years to make the jump and Japan spent five years, while it took 13 years for France and the Netherlands and 10 years for Britain.

South Korea’s GDP per capita reached $27,214 in 2015 and is expected to grow to $31,744 three years later, according to the report by the National Assembly Budget Office.

The office noted that such timing is contingent upon some economic conditions including annual economic growth of 2.8 percent for 2017 and 2.9 percent for 2018.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund forecasts that South Korea’s per capita GDP will reach $30,000 in 2020.

There were 25 countries in the world whose per capita GDP was in excess of $30,000 as of 2015, with Luxemburg posting $101,994 and Switzerland recording $80,675.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)