Growing Asia
The Hyundai Research Institute announced on April 7 that the volume of international trade between the top 10 trade countries of the world and Asia skyrocketed from US$20.11 billion to US$6.57149 trillion between 1962 and 2014 while that between the top 10 countries and Europe increased from US$74.18 billion to US$6.64019 trillion during the same period.
According to its report, the ratio of trade with Asia to the total trade volume of the 10 countries was 34.5% at the end of 2014, which was equal to the ratio of trade with Europe to it. For reference, the latter amounted to more than 50% in the 1990s.
Their trade with China and South Korea in particular showed a rapid increase. China, which had been their second-largest trade partner behind the United States in 2010, became the largest one in 2014. South Korea’s ranking rose from ninth to seventh between 2010 and 2014 and then to sixth last year.
The international trade volume of the 10 countries increased 5.0% in 2014 while the rate of increase had been as high as 7.7% in 2010. Likewise, the ratio of the international trade among themselves dropped from 41.0% to 25.6% between 1990 and 2014.