Posted on 15 Mar 2023
The Korea Customs Service announced that South Korea’s exports for the first 10 days of this month totaled US$15.791 billion, down 16.2 percent from a year ago.
In that period, semiconductor exports from South Korea dropped 41.2 percent year on year. Likewise, petrochemical product, wireless communication device, precision instrument, consumer electronics, and steel exports decreased 21.6 percent, 31.9 percent, 23.9 percent, 44.9 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively. Automobile exports increased 133.7 percent year on year.
For the 10 days, exports from South Korea to China decreased 35.3 percent from a year earlier. The exports continued to decrease for nine months and 10 days and South Korea’s trade deficit with China lasted for five months. South Korea’s exports to Vietnam, Japan and the European Union decreased 16.4 percent, 7.3 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.
In the 10-day period, South Korea’s imports increased 2.7 percent to US$20.786 billion. Crude oil, coal, and gas imports totaled US$5.042 billion with a year-on-year increase of 1.6 percent. Coal imports jumped 31.9 percent, while car and semiconductor imports increased 11.8 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
As a result, South Korea’s trade deficit in that period is US$4.995 billion. The deficit was US$4.933 billion for the first 10 days of March 2022. Its trade deficit from Jan. 1 to March 10 this year is US$22.775 billion. It has never been in the black since March last year. Its trade deficit was the largest in its history last year, this year’s deficit already reached 48 percent of last year’s, and the current one-year-long deficit is the first in 25 years.
Source:Business Korea
