South Korea is one of the few emerging markets to weather the recent storms. This stability is the legacy of 60 years of forced industrialization imposed by authoritarian governments and tightly controlled monetary and fiscal policies.
South Korea's growth has been fueled by exports, which accounted for 58.7 percent of nominal gross domestic product in 2012. This expansion propelled the economy — with $22,600 GDP per capita in 2012 — to its intermediate status position between the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), where GDP per capita ranges from $1,500 in India to $11,300 in Brazil, and the older industrialized countries, where GDP per capita ranges from $33,000 in Italy to $46,700 in Japan and $50,000 in the U.S.
Dependence on exports, however, has left South Korea vulnerable to global volatility, as was evident from the nose dives in real GDP caused by the 1997-1998 Asian crisis and the 2008-2009 global crisis and its aftermath.