Trade surplus in IT industry stands at $3 bil.

Korea`s information technology (IT) industry grew in the first quarter of this year despite contraction in the semiconductor sector.

Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) announced Sunday that the trade surplus in the IT sector stood at US$3.08 billion, with exports amounting to $10.7 billion and imports to $7.7 billion.

In the telecom equipment sector, exports of cell phones surged 17.8 percent in the first quarter over the same period of last year to $2.2 billion and sales of TV broadcasting equipment jumped 27.2 percent.

Exports of laptops and related equipment increased just 1.4 percent to $2.11 billion owing to waning demand in industrial nations. Semiconductor exports declined by 10.1 percent from the same period of the previous year to $4.88 billion.

Moon Kwon-Mo africa7@donga.com