According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL = Yonhap News) Korea’s national brand value ranking moved up one notch to 16th in the world in 2013.

According to the “Annual Report on Nation Brands 2013” published by the British brand valuation consulting firm Brand Finance on February 10, Korea’s national brand value was estimated at USD 775 billion (approx. KRW 883.512 trillion), up seven percent from 2012.

Since the company published its first report on nation brands in 2010, Korea has remained at the 16th place except in 2012, when its ranking dropped to 17th.

The evaluation was done by calculating each nation’s Brand Strength Index (BSI), a measurement of input, throughput and output in the four segments of Investment, Tourism, Products & Services, People & Skills, with the three indicators each accounting for 33 percent of the overall BSI.

Brand Financed used statistics, consensus forecasts and analysts’ diagnosis to quantify a nation’s labor force, foreign investment attraction capabilities, quality of life, GDP growth, etc. into BSI.

In the 2013 national brand value results, the U.S. ranked the highest with USD 1.799 trillion, followed by China (USD 6.19 trillion), Germany (USD 4.2 trillion), the U.K. (USD 2.354 trillion) and Japan (USD 2.263 trillion).

The U.S., China and Germany maintained their respective top 3 positions for the second consecutive year, and saw their brand value rise by 23 percent, 26 percent and 3 percent, respectively. The U.K. also enjoyed an eight percent growth in brand value, moving up one slot from the year before to the 4th place.

Japan’s brand value suffered an 11 percent drop and gave away its no. 4 ranking to the U.K. Brand Finance explained that this is because the country is still recovering from the aftermath of the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear plant explosion, and also faces fierce competition from Korea, a high-technology exporting country.

In addition to the top five countries, France (USD 1.938 trillion), Canada (USD 1.836 trillion), Brazil (USD 1.478 trillion), India (USD 1.366 trillion) and Australia (USD 1.257 trillion) were also in the top 10 group.

The national brand value of Russia (USD 1.257 trillion), Italy (USD 1.43 trillion), the Netherlands (USD 997 billion), Switzerland (USD 965 billion) and Mexico (USD 870 billion) also outperformed that of Korea in the evaluation.