The DPRK’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $30.7 billion last year, increasing by 3.7 percent compared with 2016, according to Ri Gi Song, a North Korean professor at Pyongyang’s Institute of Economics at the Academy of Social Sciences.

Ri gave the GDP figure during an interview with Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, which has a bureau in the North Korean capital.

The DPRK rarely publishes data on its economy, though during the interview Ri also gave little indication as to how the number had been generated, and did not provide other data for other economic factors that comprise GDP.

North Korea’s