Export in February Down 17 Percent, Recording 12 Consecutive Months Minus

The export continues minus growth for 12 consecutive months.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industries, `export-import data in February,` the export decreased to 11.14 billion dollars, which is 16.6 percent down compared to 13.354 billion dollars at the same period of last year.

Import showed more drastic decrease by 17.6 percent to 10.491 billion dollars, marking the surplus of 649 million dollars.

The accumulated export and import this year were 22.576 billion dollars and 21.814 billion dollars respectively.

Kim Chil-Doo, director of Trade bureau, explained, “the reason that the export declined in February is that the working days in February this year were only 19.8 days due to the New Year`s Day holidays, which was in January last year.”

By nations, the export to Japan decreased by 31.3 percent because of the low yen. And the export to all trade partners including the U.S. (13.4 percent), EU (17.8), ASEAN (22.5), China (20.7), Middle East (39.5), and Middle and South America (59.1) turned out decreased significantly.

Director Kim said, “by the recovery of the export price for D RAM and Computers, the export is expected to rise from the second quarter. However, I am worried about the influence of weak yen and the restrictions of the iron product imports.”

Kwang-Hyun Kim kkh@donga.com