Choo Kyung-ho: "351 Trillion KRW Trade Finance to be Supplied This Year... 12 Billion KRW Reserve Fund Allocated to Ease Logistics Cost Burden"

Export and Import Trend Review Meeting

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho (second from left) is presiding over the export-import trend review meeting held at the Government Seoul Office on the morning of the 21st. 2022.9.21 [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seon-hee] Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho announced on the 21st, "To boost export vitality, we will expand trade finance supply up to a maximum of 351 trillion won this year and promptly provide an additional 12 billion won using contingency funds to ease the heavy logistics cost burden faced on the ground." The scale of trade finance supply has increased by 90 trillion won compared to the plan at the beginning of the year.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo presided over the 'Export-Import Trend Inspection Meeting' at the Government Seoul Office in the morning and made this announcement. The total 12 billion won of contingency funds will be allocated as 9 billion won for logistics cost support, 2 billion won for export vouchers, and 1 billion won for online-offline (O2O) export consultation meetings, respectively.

Furthermore, Deputy Prime Minister Choo stated, "We will sequentially prepare measures to strengthen competitiveness in shipbuilding, secondary batteries, AI robots, and future mobility," and added, "Regarding the increased uncertainty caused by the global supply chain restructuring in key sectors such as semiconductors, secondary batteries, and automobiles, we will examine supply chain risk factors by core sectors and devise countermeasures."

In particular, concerning the recently heightened uncertainty in energy supply and demand, he previewed, "We will soon prepare measures to save energy and improve utilization efficiency to reduce volatility in the trade balance." Additionally, plans are in place to address issues such as the decline in export competitiveness to China.

Regarding recent export-import trends, Deputy Prime Minister Choo said, "The export growth rate is slowing down, and the trade deficit continues due to a sharp increase in energy imports." He expressed caution, stating, "In September (1st to 20th), thanks to the improvement in the trade balance surplus with China, which had shown deficits for several recent months, the trade deficit has somewhat narrowed compared to the past few months. However, export constraint risks remain centered on semiconductors and China, and due to increased volatility in energy prices, close monitoring is necessary."

The trade balance from the 1st to the 20th has steadily worsened since March (-2.1 billion dollars), reaching -10.2 billion dollars in August, but this month it narrowed to -4.1 billion dollars.

Deputy Prime Minister Choo emphasized, "With the advancement of the economic structure, the importance of service trade has increased. Recently, the improvement trend in the service balance has continued, playing a significant role in maintaining the current account surplus this year," and urged, "We must accelerate the sophistication of the trade structure by enhancing competitiveness in service industries such as tourism and content, using momentum from improvements in transportation balance and overseas construction orders."

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