SEOUL: South Korea’s exports are feared to face a further slowdown as global trade contracted 1.44 percent on-quarter in the first quarter of this year, the sharpest reduction in six years, industry data showed Thursday.
The on-quarter contraction in the January-March period marks the strongest since the first quarter of 2009, when the world trade volume dived 11.02 percent on-quarter in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, according to the data partly compiled by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
The decline in world trade came as each country reduced imports amid the global economic slowdown.
The world’s total imports fell 2.26 percent in the first three months from a quarter earlier, with emerging countries cutting their imports by a wider margin of 4.8 percent.
Asian countries cut back on their imports by 7.05 percent over the cited period, the data showed.
Advanced nations’ imports inched up 0.28 percent in the three-month period. But the United States, a major trade partner for South Korea, saw its imports fall 1.03 percent.
Analysts noted that the sluggish world trade will likely further undermine Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s exports, which fell 2.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. In April, South Korea’s outbound shipments tumbled 8.1 percent from a year ago.
“The long-protracted global economic slump and a stronger won will keep dragging down Korea’s exports in the second quarter,” said Kim Jin-myung, a researcher from HI Investment & Securities Co. “In the second half, exports are expected to rebound on the back of rising demand from China and a hike in energy prices.”
