A large current account surplus and a genuine disinflation, alongside a real tension between very low unemployment and negative business confidence
South Korea combines a $1.87 trillion economy ($36,227 per capita) with a substantial external buffer -- a 6.57% of GDP current account surplus and $436.6 billion in reserves -- and a genuine, sustained disinflation using a conventional interest-rate framework (CPI down from 5.09% in 2022 to 2.12% in 2025). Government debt is moderate at 47.8% of GDP. One real tension surfaces in this profile rather than being smoothed over: unemployment is very low (2.68%) while business confidence is negative, a genuine disconnect between two labour-market-adjacent signals. Stated gaps: no NIIP, fiscal balance, household/corporate debt, or capital-markets data exists for South Korea on this platform.
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