Growth Driven by Recovery of Chinese Economy
South Korea’s exports and imports increased for the third consecutive month despite COVID-19. This is because the global display and semiconductor industries are recovering along with the economy of China, the largest market for South Korean exporters.
The Bank of Korea announced on Dec. 29 that South Korea’s export volume index and import volume index were 119.56 and 118.11 last month, up 5.7 percent and 9.1 percent from a year ago, respectively.
The export volume indices of electrical equipment and chemical products rose 16.5 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively. Likewise, the computer, electronics and optical instrument export volume increased 12.2 percent and the export volume of the primary industry showed a year-on-year increase of 10.5 percent. On the other hand, the coal and petroleum product export volume and the machinery and equipment export volume fell 27.9 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.
The export value index also rose 3.8 percent to 110.69 after a 3.5 percent decrease in the previous month. The export values of coal and petroleum products and machinery and equipment decreased 49.1 percent and 13.1 percent, respectively. In contrast, those of computers, electronics and optical instruments and chemical products rose 16.9 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
When it comes to import volumes, mining and coal and petroleum products respectively decreased 6.9 percent and 18.6 percent whereas computers, electronics and optical instruments and machinery and equipment respectively increased 15.2 percent and 25.9 percent.
The overall import value index fell 0.6 percent year on year to 111.46. Specifically, the indices of computers, electronics and optical instruments rose 15.1 percent, machinery and equipment rose 29.4 percent, mining products dropped 33.6 percent and coal and petroleum products dropped 35.9 percent.
Last month, South Korea’s net barter terms of trade index was 98.1, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier and up 0.3 percent from the previous month. It rose for eight months in a row and showed a successive year-on-year increase for the fourth consecutive month with the U.S. dollar-based import price (down 8.9 percent) falling more than the export price (down 1.7 percent). The income terms of trade index was 117.29, up 14 percent from a year ago.