The Role of the Manufacturing Competitiveness in the COVID-19 Recovery in Korea

The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating. Last year, world GDP growth was -3.6 percent, the lowest since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. On the other hand, the growth rate of South Korea in 2020 was negative one percent, a relatively lower drop than the global economy. Given that neither developed (-4.7 percent growth) nor developing countries (-2.2 percent growth) are able to escape the economic fallout of the pandemic South Korea’s performance looks even better in 2020. This can also be explained by a better employment situation in South Korea. Unlike OECD countries which on average experienced a sharp rise in the unemployment rate from the second to the fourth quarter of 2020, South Korea exhibited a stable trend in its quarterly unemployment rate even after the outbreak of COVID-19