DAY BREAK 06:00 Korea's global GDP ranking remains flat for 5 straight years in 2013

Our top story this morning... South Korea continued to rank fourteenth in the world in terms of gross domestic product last year. The Bank of Korea says nominal GDP amounted to roughly one-point-three trillion U.S. dollars in 2013... placing Korea in fourteenth place for the fifth straight year. Analysts say the figures are a reflection of Korea's slow-growth trend. Hwang Ji-hye reports. The Korean economy seems like it has been losing its dynamism since the global financial crisis in 2008. The Bank of Korea said Sunday... that the global ranking of the nation's gross domestic product remained unchanged at 14th place in 2013... for a fifth straight year. Korea's GDP stood at around 1-point-3 trillion U.S. dollars last year. That's based on new international standards for calculating gross domestic product... that involve adding contributions from new sectors like research and development. Experts say... the nation's slow growth trend after the global financial crisis led the nation's ranking to stay flat. Asia's fourth-largest economy ranked at 12th in 2000,... and managed to climb up to 10th in 2005. But it lost ground,... landing in 14th in 2009 after the global economic crisis... and has remained the same since then. The United States topped the list at almost 17-trillion dollars last year,... followed by China with 9-point-2 trillion... and Japan with 4-point-9 trillion dollars. Countries that have seen their rankings drop over the past five years include Japan... and European countries like Italy and Spain... that were hit hard by the sovereign debt crisis. Hwang Ji-hye, Arirang News.