Korea’s economy ranked 15th in the world

The Korean economy was the world’s 15th largest in 2009 for the second year, the World Bank said Wednesday. 

Nominal gross domestic product, the broadest measure of a country’s overall economic output, of Korea neared $832.5 billion last year, down from $929.1 billion in 2008, the World Bank report said. 

The U.S. economy was still by far the richest with a GDP of $14.26 trillion. China came third with $4.91 trillion but its fast-growing economy is expected to soon surpass Japan, currently No. 2 with $5.07 trillion.