Exports in the first month of the new year increased 11.4% over the same period last year. It is a double-digit increase for two consecutive months following last December (12.6%). The average daily exports surpassed $2.1 billion for the first time. This is because semiconductor exports continued to boom and automobile exports also rebounded successfully.
Korean export item precious body in the pandemic
January exports increased by 11% compared to the same month last year
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 1st that exports recorded 48 billion dollars last month. The average export value per day, taking into account the number of working days, was 2.13 billion dollars, up 6.4% from the same period last year. Amid the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), Korea’s major export items have become’precious bodies’ in overseas markets. Exports of semiconductors (21.7%) and home appliances (19.1%) rose for 7 consecutive months. Wireless communication devices (58%) recorded the highest export growth rate in 16 years and 8 months, and displays (32.2%) in 10 years and 8 months.
Total exports and daily average exports increased for 3 consecutive months. Graphic = Reporter Park Kyung-min [email protected]
Automobile exports, which had declined in December last year, increased by 40.2% last month, which also contributed to the increase in overall exports. System Semiconductor (16%), BioHealth (66.5%), and Electric Vehicles (81%) also continued to increase in exports last month. In particular, the Corona 19 diagnostic kit broke the record for monthly exports for four consecutive months. Corona 19 diagnostic kits accounted for 21.7% of the biohealth exports last month.
Na Seung-sik, head of the Trade and Investment Department of the Ministry of Industry, said, “The appearance of new growth items added as new growth engines to the propaganda of information technology (IT) items such as semiconductors. “The demand for sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and eco-friendly vehicles has increased in the US and the European Union (EU). The trend of preferring private cars to public transportation due to Corona 19 also had an effect on automobile exports.”
By region, exports increased significantly in three major markets: China (22%), the United States (46.1%), and the EU (23.9%). The Ministry of Industry said that demand for Corona 19 diagnostic kits continued in Germany and the Netherlands.
Kang Sung-jin, a professor of economics at Korea University, predicted that exports will continue to increase this year as demand from developed countries recovers due to the impact of the supply of Corona 19 vaccines, and a base effect from export performance, which was sluggish last year, appears. However, Professor Kang said, “As US President Joe Biden signed an executive order of’by American’ to purchase American products first, it could be a negative factor in the short term for the export of electric vehicles to Korea.” The Bank of Korea predicted that the export growth rate will reach 9.3% in the first half of this year and down to 1.9% in the second half of this year, according to the economic outlook announced in November last year.
Sejong = Reporter Seongbin Lim [email protected]