The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP) will climb up two notches to rank tenth in the world this year.

According to the IMF's world economy outlook report on Sunday, Asia's fourth-largest economy is expected to post one-point-58 trillion U.S. dollars in GDP in 2020 to rank tenth in the world.

The expected rise in the GDP rankings is attributed to the fact that South Korea was less affected by the global economic slowdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brazil and Russia, which ranked higher than South Korea last year, are predicted to rank 12th and 11th, each this year.

South Korea made the top ten global GDP list for the first time in 2018.

The IMF projected that the global economy will shrink four-point-four percent this year while the South Korean economy will contract one-point-nine percent.