The International Monetary Fund has forecast that South Korea's per capita gross domestic product would recover to the 20-thousand dollar level around 2012.

According to the Finance Ministry, the IMF report said that Korea's per capita GDP topped 20-thousand dollars for the first time in 2007 but it fell to 19-thousand-136 dollars last year due to the global economic downturn. The agency projects the figure to post 16-thousand-450 dollars this year, over 17-thousand-500 next year, 20-thousand-500 dollars by 2012 and 23-thousand-760 dollars in 2014.

IMF believes Korea is recovering fast from the recession but it will need five years to recover to the level of its economic capacity prior to 2007.

Based on the forecast, Korea will rank 31st in per capita GDP ouf of 33 nations the IMF has categorized as an advanced country. Trailing Korea would be Slovakia and Taiwan. Korea ranked 28th in 2007 and 31st last year.

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