Reuters: North Korea posts fastest growth in 8 years in 2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un tours a production facility in Songchon County, North Korea.

North Korea's economy grew 3.7% in 2024, the fastest annual pace of growth in eight years, backed by expanded economic ties with Russia, according to estimates by South Korea's central bank released on Friday, Reuters reports.

Economic growth in North Korea last year picked up from a 3.1% rise in gross domestic product in 2023 and a 0.2% fall in 2022, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said

The 2024 figure marked the highest growth rate since 2016, when the economy expanded 3.9%.

"It is mainly due to significant increases in manufacturing, construction and mining industries, which were affected by strengthening of national policy projects domestically, and expansion of economic cooperation between North Korea and Russia externally," a BOK official told a briefing.

In particular, the heavy chemical sector soared 10.7%, the highest rate since records began, helped by expanded production of metal products for weapons exported to Russia, the official said.

The BOK's estimates are considered among the most reliable indicators of economic activity in the North, which does not publish official data.

The data showed the mining sector also grew 8.8%, the biggest gain since 1999.

The BOK has been publishing its estimates of the North Korean economy since 1991, based on information from various sources including intelligence and foreign trading agencies and data from the South's unification ministry.

The South Korean central bank released the estimate a month later than in previous years because there was a delay in collecting raw data.

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