SEOUL: Strong sales of semiconductors and petroleum goods were expected to keep South Korea‘s exports growing in April, albeit more slowly than a year ago when exports spiked ahead of a holiday period, a Reuters survey showed on Friday.
The median forecast from the poll of 10 economists expected exports would rise 4.1 percent from a year earlier, stepping down from March’s 6.1 percent growth.
The poll found the value of imports was expected to have surged 18.4 percent last month versus a year ago because of a rise in global oil prices.
“South Korea’s exports soared last April driven by ships and pre-orders due to holidays in May, which probably have slowed down this April’s growth rate,” said Lim Hye-youn, an economist at Daishin Financial Group.
Lim added, however, that robust shipments of memory chips and petroleum goods would have kept net exports in positive territory, a trend she expected to continue throughout the year.
Booming demand for South Korean memory chips and computers across China and Europe lifted March exports, which outperformed with revised growth of 3.9 percent in February.
South Korea’s industrial production in March was likely to have risen 0.5 percent, thanks to strong chip sales, but further gains were probably held back by troubles in the auto industry.
Park Ok-hee, an economist at IBK Securities, said General Motors’ shutdown of one of its South Korean plants was still weighing on the manufacturing sector.
General Motors announced in February that it would close one of its four South Korean plants.
The company and the South Korean government have agreed to inject $4.35 billions into the carmaker’s loss-making local arm to keep it afloat after it came close to seeking bankruptcy protection.
