Continuous Trade Surplus
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on March 1 that Korea’s exports reached US$42.989 billion in Feb., a 1.6 percent year-on-year gain. The nation recorded a trade surplus of US$926 million, continuing the surplus trend for the 25th consecutive month.
Among export items, wireless telecommunication devices posted 34.5 percent growth, semiconductors 14.5 percent, automobiles 9.1 percent, and steel 0.4 percent, respectively, compared to the same month last year. In contrast, petroleum products (-15.4 percent), LCD (-11.1 percent), vessels (-7 percent), petrochemicals (-6.8 percent), and machinery (-2.4percent) recorded negative growth.
By region, exports to ASEAN (15.1 percent), the EU (10.6 percent), and China (3.8 percent) showed a positive trend. Outbound shipments of consumer goods such as mobile devices and home appliances to the EU vastly increased, and those of ships to ASEAN soared as well.
On the other hand, February saw its monthly exports to Latin America (-11.9 percent) and the US (-6.7 percent) shrink. Outbound shipments to Japan also decreased by 9.5 percent owing to the huge influence of a weak yen, continuing a downward trend for the 13th month in a row. However, Korea experienced an improvement in a reduction in exports to Japan compared to the December and January figures (-12.6 percent and -19.8 percent).
Outbound shipments to the Fragile Five grew, with Turkey (29.3 percent), Brazil (24.5 percent), and India (1.4 percent) showing positive numbers, whereas those to South Africa (-69.1 percent) and Indonesia (-34.9 percent) shrank greatly.
Meanwhile, inbound shipments of raw materials such as crude oil decreased. In contrast, imports of consumer goods such as cars and capital goods, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment, wireless telecommunication devices, semiconductor memory chips, and liquid crystal components increased.
An official at MOTIE said, “The nation’s export growth last month fell short of expectations, affected by a delay in advanced economies’ recovery and economic crisis of emerging markets.” The official added, “But the country’s export growth is expected to swing into high gear after the second quarter, based on this year’s industry forecast.”