SEOUL: South Korean exports and imports plunged on annual basis in the first 20 days of this month, customs agency data showed on Monday, reflecting a weak global economy and fewer working days this year than a year before.
Exports for the Dec. 1-20 period fell 18.9 per cent from a year earlier to $24.37 billion while imports dropped 21.7 per cent to $22.35 billion, Korea Customs Service data showed.
There was one fewer working day during the Dec. 1-20 period this year than last year. Adjusted for this, exports would be down 13.6 per cent on-year while imports would be down 16.7 per cent, Thomson Reuters calculations show.
The adjusted figures are still very weak and a poor omen for South Korea’s prospects, with economists sceptical of the government’s confidence in the economy’s capacity to continue recovery on the back of domestic demand.
Overseas shipments by South Korea, the world’s seventh-largest exporter in 2014, fell every month this year in annual terms as the slowing Chinese economy and ailing commodities producers took their toll. South Korea will publish export and import data for the whole of December on Jan. 1, 2016.
