An Economics class is currently researching countries using economic data. Students have been logging on to chat and asking where to find GDP, PPP and other economic indicators. We all know about the standard country data sources including World Bank open data and the IMF International Financial Statistics (in Periodicals). But what happens when the student needs data on North Korea, a country not covered by the IMF?
Here is one way to proceed. Check out the Europa World Yearbook (REF JN1 .E85). It includes basic data pages but it will also tell you if NK belongs to any international organizations. North Korea is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
The UN puts very little of its data on the web but you can find the annual Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific (from ESCAP) in reference HC411.U4A23 and their Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific in reference HA1665.S73.
ASEAN has economic data about its member countries on the web site including a PDF version (almost 300 pages) of its Statistical Yearbook.
I also found this blog from a policy researcher who follows the economy of North Korea and he posted an extensive list of sources that can be used for economic research http://www.nkeconwatch.com/north-korea-statistical-sources/
I haven’t looked at Datastream or Bloomberg but they might be worth a try.
Thanks for taking the time to share this. I’d forgotten about Europa World Yearbook.
The UN aggregates and publishes data from its various agencies via the UN data page, which you can search or browse: http://data.un.org/ – best approach is to search for the variable, then in the results you can limit by country. If you select the More menu above the search box you can view a country profile, which gives you an idea of the breadth of info that’s available. It includes some of the IMF data (not helpful in this case) but also some other series that include economic data. North Korea is tough, as it is omitted from several data sets (hard to get the info) and it’s listed several different ways (North Korea – Dem People’s Rep of Korea – Korea, North etc).
To go a step further, here’s what Business Monitor had to offer in the Economic Outlook:
“North Korea does not publish any economic data, other than mentioning changes to its spending plans in its annual budgets. The reason is that Pyongyang considers economic statistics to be a state secret. Even false data is not released. Therefore, outside observers must rely on annual GDP estimates published by the Bank of Korea (BoK, the South’s central bank) every year, usually in the summer.”
Below is the data-deficient report from BoK, which may very well be one of the very few available sources for information on N. Korean economy.
http://www.bok.or.kr/contents/total/eng/boardView.action?menuNaviId=634&boardBean.brdid=14033&boardBean.menuid=634