South Korea has had enough of being called an emerging market

In the 1960IMFMSCIMSCIMSCIs South Korea was a poor, backward country recovering from a devastating war. Now it is the 12th-largest economy in the world. Its 52m people earn an average of $35,000 a year, nearly as much as Italians and way more than Iberians. Its stockmarket is the 16th-biggest globally, with a capitalisation of $1.8trn, and the seventh-busiest by daily traded volumes. The has deemed South Korea an advanced economy since 1997. Anyone still describing it as an emerging market might therefore appear to have been asleep for the past half-century.And yet this is what , a company that creates market benchmarks, has been doing for three decades. South Korea was the 13th country to join its Emerging Market Index, which now counts 24 members. Some have since been relegated to a “frontier” basket (Croatia, Morocco), shunted to “standalone” markets (Argentina) or even dropped altogether (Venezuela). Less glitzy economies than South Korea’s, such as Greece and Portugal, were elevated to ’s Developed Market index years ago. South Korea therefore thinks it is overdue a promotion. It may hope to achieve one on June 22st, when announces which countries stand a chance to receive the accolade next year.