Future Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

As discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, from the 1970s Korea enjoyed one of the fastest rates of economic growth in the world, and in December 1996 it became a proud member of the OECD. As many observers pointed out, this was a miracle — a miracle that could not have been anticipated in the 1960s. In 1997, however, Korea experienced its worst crisis since the Korean War. While this financial crisis was triggered by the currency crisis in Thailand in July 1997, more fundamental causes were the intrinsic weaknesses that had accumulated in the Korean economy during the realisation of the government’s economic development strategy.