President Moon: "February exports hit record high... Surplus turnaround despite soaring energy prices"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] President Moon Jae-in announced on the 1st through social networking services (SNS) that he will "do his best to maintain the export growth trend" in relation to the February export performance, which recorded an all-time high.

On the same day, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that last month's export amount was $53.91 billion, an increase of 20.6% compared to the previous year, marking the highest ever for February.

President Moon said, "Despite the difficult situation where the external economic security environment is rapidly changing along with the spread of Omicron, our exports have set a new record, leading a strong recovery and rebound of the economy," and emphasized, "It is also very positive that the trade balance greatly improved and turned into a surplus despite imports reaching a record high in February due to the sharp rise in energy prices."

President Moon stated that this year's export performance is greatly exceeding initial forecasts, saying, "The export growth rate for January and February has reached the 17% range, and it is expected to significantly surpass the first quarter forecast and the overall forecast for this year."

He then expressed gratitude to companies and the public, saying, "The government will carefully respond to external difficulties with increased uncertainty caused by international oil prices and raw material price instability, supply chain issues, and the Ukraine situation, and will do its best to maintain the export growth trend."

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