Park Sung-taek, Vice Minister of Industry, "11 Consecutive Months of Export Growth and 15 Consecutive Months of Surplus Confirmed"

Park Sung-taek, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, announced on the 26th that "it is certain that exports will be positive for the 11th consecutive month and a surplus will be achieved for the 15th consecutive month in August."

At the export trend review meeting on the same day, Vice Minister Park said, "The upward trend in exports will continue until the end of the year, and the public and private sectors will work as one team to fully support by utilizing all available resources to achieve the highest export performance ever this year."

Cargo is stacked on a container ship docked at Busan Port. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Korean exports have increased for 10 consecutive months through July this year. The cumulative export amount recorded $392.5 billion, an increase of 9.8% compared to the previous year. The trade balance has recorded a surplus for 14 consecutive months. As of the cumulative total in July this year, the surplus reached $26.8 billion, already more than double last year's total deficit of $10.3 billion.

By major items, exports of information technology (IT) products, including semiconductors?the largest export item (January to July this year: $76.9 billion, 52%)?led the export growth, recording $102.3 billion, a 41% increase compared to the previous year through July. The second-largest item, automobiles ($42.4 billion, 2%), and the third-largest item, general machinery ($31.1 billion, 0.2%), recorded their highest export performances ever during the same period. Exports of key items such as ships ($12.9 billion, 19%), petroleum products ($31.0 billion, 9%), and petrochemicals ($28.6 billion, 7%) also continued to show favorable trends.

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