Increase in Exports of Petroleum Products and Passenger Cars... US Dollar Payment Share Rises for 3 Consecutive Years

Busan Port Sinsundae Pier and Gammam Pier
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Last year, as exports of petroleum products and passenger cars increased, the share of the US dollar in total export settlement currencies grew to 85%.

According to the '2022 Export and Import by Settlement Currency (Final)' released by the Bank of Korea on the 20th, the export share by settlement currency last year was US dollar (85%), euro (5.8%), yen (2.3%), won (2.3%), and yuan (1.6%) in that order.

The export settlement share of these five currencies accounted for 97.1% of total exports.

While the US dollar settlement share rose by 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, the yen, won, and euro each declined by 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1 percentage points respectively.

The dollar share has increased for three consecutive years: 83.5% in 2019, 83.6% in 2020, 83.9% in 2021, and 85% last year.

The Bank of Korea explained, "The increase in the dollar settlement share compared to the previous year was driven by the rise in exports settled in dollars, including petroleum products (+63.9%), chemical products (+8.3%), and passenger cars (+27.3%), which increased by 7.5% overall."

In the case of the yen, exports settled in yen for major items such as semiconductors (-26.7%) and steel products (-5.1%) were sluggish, causing the yen-settled export growth rate (10.3%) to lag behind the overall export growth, resulting in a decline for three consecutive years.

The won export share has also been declining for five years. The Bank of Korea explained, "this is due to a decrease (-0.9%) in won-settled exports caused by sluggish exports to China, centered on semiconductor manufacturing equipment (-70.8%)."

Last year, the import share by settlement currency was US dollar (82.8%), won (6.1%), euro (4.8%), yen (3.9%), and yuan (1.7%) in that order. The settlement share of these five currencies accounted for 99.3% of total imports.

The dollar settlement share increased by 2.7 percentage points compared to the previous year, while the yen, euro, and won each decreased by 1.3, 1.1, and 0.5 percentage points respectively.

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