North Korea's economy posted rare growth last year on robust harvests and a flurry of building activity in the capital Pyongyang, but it still remains one of the world's poorest and least developed states, an official report by South Korea shows.
The reclusive state's economy expanded by a real 0.8 percent in 2011, estimates by South Korea's central bank showed Sunday. It was only the second time in the past six years the closed economy has expanded.
North Korea's economy, which a few decades ago was the envy of its neighbors, went into freefall with the collapse of its main benefactor, the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s. The North now relies heavily on China for economic and political support.
The North has been further isolated and squeezed by international sanctions, imposed for its nuclear program.
Despite the rare economic growth, per-capita income in the country with a 24.3 million population stood at just 1,334 million South Korean won, or less than $1,200 when converted into the latest value of the South Korean currency, the Bank of Korea in Seoul said.
In nominal terms, the size of the economy was estimated at less than 3 percent of South Korea's, it said.
The North does not release any official data, and estimates by the South, one of the Group of 20 major economies, are widely used in the international community.
Growth in 2011 was led by the agriculture, fishing and forestry industries which expanded by 5.3 percent after a 2.1 percent decline in 2010, thanks to good weather conditions and increased use of fertilizer, the estimates showed.