S. Korea’s Exports, Imports Shrink in February

South Korea’s exports fell to the lowest level in 13 months last year, with imports sliding to the lowest level in two years. According to the customsclearance trade figures provided by the Korea Customs Service(KCS), the nation’s exports shrank 8.6 percent on-year to $42.34 billion in February. Imports also faltered 10.6 percent to $40.31billion.

Korea continued a trade surplus for 13 straight months, sealing $2.02billion, up 66.4 percent from a year ago.

By product, exports of major industry products such as shipbuilding(-42.2 percent), automobiles(-15.6percent), iron and steel(-10.6 percent), auto parts(-4.2 percent) and petroleum products(-1.7 percent)contracted, excluding liquid crystal devices(6.3 percent), wireless communication devices(2.7 percent), semiconductors(1.1 percent).

By region, exports bound for the US shrank 11.4 percent, while those for Japan, the EU and China also fell 17.4 percent, 15.4 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the nation’s cumulative exports during the first two months of this year totaled $88 billion, and imports reached $85.5 billion, leading to a cumulative trade surplus of $2.5 billion, the data showed.