South Korea Records Strongest Export Growth: South Koreas exports went up a lot in January. This is the month in a row that South Koreas exports have increased. It is the growth that South Koreas exports have seen in more than four years. The reason for this increase is that people all around the world really want to buy AI servers and semiconductors, from South Korea. The government of South Korea released this information on Sunday.
Shipments going out of South Korea went up a lot by 33.9% from the time last year to $65.85 billion. This is much more than what economists thought would happen they thought it would only go up by 29.9%. South Korea is a way to see what is happening with trade, around the world.
Imports went up a lot they were 11.7% higher than the time last year and they reached $57.11 billion. This is because the demand from people in the country and from industries is getting stronger. Imports are really showing this demand, from people and industries.
The semiconductor exports really took off they were than twice as much as they were, in January last year which is a big jump of 102.7%.
The trade ministry said that the prices of memory chips are going up and people are buying a lot of servers that have to do with Artificial Intelligence so this is helping the semiconductor exports to keep growing. Semiconductor exports are doing well because of this.
The chip exports are doing well. This trend will probably keep going on for now. This is because the prices of semiconductors are high and there are still problems with getting supplies. Park Sang-hyun, an analyst at iM Securities said this. He also said that there were working days in January this year compared to last year which helped the exports do better. The chip exports got a boost, from this.
Out of South Korea’s 15 major export categories, 13 posted gains, including semiconductors, automobiles, petrochemicals, steel, and computers.
Exports to China really went up a lot by 46.7%. This is the increase when we look at the main countries we export to.
- Exports to the United States also rose, by 29.5%.
- Exports to the European Union increased,. Not as much, by 6.9%.
The Industry Minister, Kim Jung-kwan said that it is really good to see different industries, like the core industries and the new consumer goods growing well.
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However Kim Jung-kwan warned that people are getting a little worried about trade because of the tariff policies of the United States and the fact that many countries are starting to protect their own industries, which is not good, for trade.
Kim also noted that further discussions with the United States may be needed regarding a trade agreement reached last year, following recent talks held after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to raise tariffs.
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