Ministry of Industry: "Exports Positive This Month Too... '12 Consecutive Months of Growth' Achievable"

Export Trend Review Meeting

The government expects exports to continue their upward trend this month as well, marking 12 consecutive months of positive export growth since October last year.

On the 24th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held an export trend review meeting chaired by First Vice Minister Park Seong-taek to assess the export conditions of major items and discuss measures to expand exports.

From the beginning of this year through August, cumulative export value reached $450 billion, a 9.9% increase compared to the previous year. The trade balance has maintained a surplus for 15 consecutive months. The cumulative surplus amounted to $30.3 billion, three times the total deficit of $10.3 billion recorded last year.

By major items, semiconductors, the largest export item, recorded $88.8 billion from January to August, a 50% increase year-on-year, and IT item exports including semiconductors reached $119.3 billion, up 41% compared to the previous year. The second largest item, automobiles, also achieved a record high export performance of $47.4 billion during the same period, breaking the previous record set just one year ago.

Vice Minister Park said, "As of the 20th, cumulative exports decreased by 1.1% year-on-year due to fewer working days caused by the Chuseok holiday, but when considering working days, the average daily export increased by 18.0%. Overall for September, we expect to continue the positive trend and achieve 12 consecutive months of export growth."

He added, "We will provide full support as a united public-private team to sustain the export boom through the end of the year and achieve the highest export performance ever recorded this year. In particular, we will closely monitor key factors that directly or indirectly affect Korean exports, such as the escalation of the Middle East situation due to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)'s decision to lower the benchmark interest rate, together with the industry."