SEOL: Yonhap reported that South Korea’s key industries, including the auto and shipbuilding sectors, suffered a sharp drop in exports last year, but the country logged a decent trade surplus due to a dip in oil prices. According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, the country’s exports reached USD 494.3 billion last year, down 6 percent from a year earlier. Imports dipped 7.3 percent on year to reach USD 399.8 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of USD 94.5 billion.
Large exporters shipped USD 317 billion worth of goods overseas last year, down 7.9 percent from last year’s USD 344 billion, the data showed, as auto and shipbuilding firms suffered a sharp decline in their exports. The statistics office said that “Our key industries, such as auto, shipbuilding and refining, saw their exports decline sharply last year.”
The data showed that large players’ imports also dipped 11.3 percent on year last year. The country’s top 10 exporters logged exports worth USD 167.6 billion, accounting 33.9 percent of total outbound shipments.
