ⓒYONHAP News

The total amount of money an average person in South Korea earns a year has surpassed 30-thousand dollars for the first time.

According to the 2018 tally the Bank of Korea released on Tuesday, the nation's per capita gross national income, or GNI, reached 31-thousand-349 dollars in 2018, which is a five-point-four percent increase from 29-thousand-745 dollars the previous year.

Widely considered an indicator of living standards, the GNI per capita is a nation's total income earned at home and abroad divided by its total population.

It took 12 years for Asia's fourth largest economy to reach the threshold since it broke the 20-thousand dollar mark in 2006.

The central bank stressed that South Korea is only the seventh country to join the so called "30-50 club" of advanced economies with a population of over 50 million and GNI above 30-thousand U.S. dollars. Besides South Korea, only the U.S., Japan, Germany, France, the U.K. and Italy meet the standard.

Among economies with populations of over 20-million, South Korea's per person GNI stands at eleventh, with the U.S. topping the list followed by Australia and the Netherlands.

Despite surpassing the GNI milestone, the Korean economy last year saw the slowest on-year growth since 2012.

In terms of growth of gross domestic product, or GDP, the central bank confirmed that the economy expanded two-point-seven percent last year due to sluggish corporate investment.