Government: "Exports Will Remain Positive and Trade Surplus Maintained in May"

5th Export Item Manager Meeting

Kang Kyung-sung, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, stated on the 21st, "We expect the export surplus and trade balance surplus trend to remain strong in May as well."

On the same day, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 5th Export Item Officers Meeting chaired by Vice Minister Kang to review the export situation for May.

An official from the Ministry explained, "Our exports have maintained a solid positive trend since turning positive in October last year. In particular, exports, which showed a higher growth rate compared to major countries in the first quarter of this year, have driven our economic growth. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a major international organization, also revised up our economic growth rate to 2.6% this year within three months, considering the strong export performance."

The total exports from January to April this year recorded $220 billion, an increase of 9.6% compared to the previous year. Especially, IT items such as semiconductors (52.0%), displays (13.4%), and computers (36.4%) showed double-digit growth rates. The strong performance of major export items continuing from last year, such as automobiles (4.7%), ships (47.5%), and general machinery (0.9%), also persisted.

Exports increased by 1.5% up to the 20th of this month despite a shortage of working days. The number of working days from the 1st to the 20th was 12.5 days, two days fewer than the same period last year (14.5 days). Considering this, the average daily export amount was $2.62 billion, a 17.7% increase compared to the same period last year.

Vice Minister Kang said, "We plan to provide full support as a public-private one team to ensure that the recent trend leads to the highest export performance this year. We will promptly prepare a 'pan-government additional export support plan' jointly with related ministries, including expanded support for finance, marketing, and certification, as well as customized support by industry and company size. We will also immediately resolve difficulties faced by export companies on the ground so that our companies can focus all their capabilities on exports."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.