The South Korean economy expanded 1 percent in 2025 amid strong exports but posted negative growth in the fourth quarter, central bank data showed Tuesday. The country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) — a key measure of economic growth — contracted 0.2 percent from the previous quarter in the October-December period, compared with its earlier estimate of a 0.3 percent contraction, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the country’s first quarterly contraction since the January-March period of last year, when the economy shrank 0.2 percent. On an on-year basis, GDP grew 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter, down from a 1.8 percent on-year expansion in the prior quarter. For the entire year of 2025, the economy expanded 1 percent, matching the BOK’s earlier estimate and slowing from the previous year’s 2 percent growth. The data also showed that the country’s per capita gross national income (GNI) stood at $36,855 in 2025, marking a 0.3 percent increase from a year earlier. In terms of the Korean won, the GNI climbed 4.6 percent amid the weakness of the
