South Korea’s per capita income is expected to reach a record high this year, surpassing $20,000 for the second consecutive year, a government official said Sunday.

The official from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said the country’s per capita gross national income will likely reach between $23,500-$24,000.

The amount marks over 13 percent growth from last year’s $20,759.

The International Monetary Fund predicted a similar level of growth for South Korea’s economy in an earlier report.

In its World Economic Outlook, released in September, the IMF forecast South Korea’s per capita gross domestic product, or GDP, to reach $23,749 this year.

The difference between a country’s GDP and GNI comes mainly from how the country’s economic growth is measured. GNI takes into account income and taxes earned both internationally and domestically while GNP only measures the income and taxes earned by domestic citizens.

South Korea’s per capita GNI surpassed the $20,000 mark for the first time in its history in 2007, but dropped to $19,296 the following year in the wake of a global financial crisis, and again to $17,193 in 2009. 

(Yonhap News)