SEOUL, KOREA - The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on June 1 that the May export figures were a record high for the year at US$48.37 billion, up 3.2 percent from the same month last year. But the exports to Japan fell more than 10 percent for four consecutive months due to the weak yen. As for import figures, they fell 4.8 percent to $42.34 billion.
For the month, the trade balance was a surplus of $6.03 billion. The cumulative trade surplus for the five months of the year has been $230.06 billion, 1 percent higher than a year ago.
The ministry said the good performance was largely due to an increase in exports to the United States and China. By export item, mobile communications devices saw an increase of 62.5 percent while items like petrochemical products (-5.1%), LCD devices (-8.7%), steel (-13.0%), and ships (-33.3%) suffered a setback because of a fall in export prices.
저작권자 © Korea IT Times 무단전재 및 재배포 금지
