"South Korea to Surpass Japan and Become World's 5th Largest Exporter in 7 Years"

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] It is forecasted that South Korea will surpass Japan and rise to become the world's 5th largest exporting country by 2027, seven years from now.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) analyzed and announced "Changes in South Korea's status in the global export market and the possibility and challenges of South Korea entering the world's 5th largest exporting countries" ahead of Trade Day.

As of last year, South Korea achieved exports worth $541.8 billion, holding a 2.9% share of the global export market, advancing to become the world's 7th largest exporting power. Notably, in 2018, seven years after reaching $500 billion in exports in 2011, South Korea became the 7th country worldwide to achieve $600 billion in exports, following the United States, Germany, China, the Netherlands, France, and Japan.

Due to the economic crisis caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), South Korea's exports decreased by 11.3% this year. However, this decline was 2.9 percentage points less than the average 14.2% decrease experienced by the world's top 20 exporting countries.

This strong performance among global export competitors is attributed mainly to Asian countries, South Korea's largest export region, being less affected economically by COVID-19, and the joint public-private efforts such as emergency air cargo transport for export companies and hosting online consultation meetings with overseas buyers.

The FKI expects that if South Korea maintains the growth rate of the 2010s (an average annual growth of 1.68%), it will surpass Japan, whose export competitiveness is clearly weakening, and enter the world's 5th largest exporting countries within seven years.

While South Korea continued positive growth (an average annual growth of 1.68%) despite China's THAAD-related economic retaliation in 2016, Japan experienced a clear trend of declining exports of high-end parts and materials to China, its core export items, due to China's increased manufacturing self-sufficiency. Additionally, Japan's overall exports decreased by an average of 0.96% annually, weakened by reduced competitiveness in digital-related goods, which have increased their share to about 17% in the global export market.

In contrast, South Korea performed well, with total exports of 14 new growth items such as next-generation semiconductors, next-generation displays, bio-health, and electric vehicles increasing by 37.9% compared to 2015, reaching $122.6 billion last year, and their share of total exports rising to 22.6%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.