Skip to content
  • KOSPI 2745.82 -9.29 -0.34%
  • KOSDAQ 910.05 -1.20 -0.13%
  • KOSPI200 373.22 -0.86 -0.23%
  • USD/KRW 1350.5 -0.5 -0.04%
  • JPY100/KRW 891.98 -0.74 -0.08%
  • EUR/KRW 1457.19 -5.61 -0.38%
  • CNH/KRW 185.94 -0.31 -0.17%
View Market Snapshot

South Korea seen to spend $1.4 tn on infrastructure by 2040: report

Aug 08, 2017 (Gmt+09:00)

1 Min read

South Korea is expected to largely meet its infrastructure investment needs by 2040, spending $1.4 trillion on infrastructure by the year, according to a report of G20’s Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub).


The country is forecast to meet 97.12% of its infrastructure investment needs by 2040, lower than Japan’s 97.63%, France’s 99.45% and Germany’s 99.9% but above other developing countries such as India and Turkey, GI Hub said in a recently-published Global Infrastructure Outlook. The report covers seven industry sectors across 50 countries.


South Korea is likely to spend 2.9% of its gross domestic product on infrastructure to meet demands of a rising urban population, supported by economic growth. The percentage is 1.1 percentage points lower than the Asia region on average, but similar to Japan’s projected spending of 3.23% on infrastructure investments.


“South Korea is likely to need to invest $1.409 trillion in infrastructure by 2040, and if the current spending trend continues South Korea will invest a total of $1.368 trillion – this leaves an infrastructure investment gap of only $41 billion over a 25 year period,” it said in a press release distributed with the report.


The proportion of urban population in South Korea will likely rise from 83% in 2015 to 90% in 2040, while the country’s population is forecast to grow by only 2 million during the period.


By comparison, China has an investment need of $28 trillion and an investment shortfall of $1.9 trillion of its total investment needs. India has an investment need of $4.5 trillion and a gap of $0.5 trillion.


In aggregate, Asia needs to spend $52 trillion in infrastructure by 2040, which represents more than half of the projected global infrastructure spending needs of $97 trillion during the period.


By Daehun Kim


daepun@hankyung.com


Yeonhee Kim edited this article

More to Read
Comment 0
0/300