Through May this year, Korea showed the highest export growth among the top 10 exporting countries thanks to brisk shipments of semiconductors and cars. Shown is a consultation on secondary battery exports from March 6-7 hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency at the trade exhibition Interbattery 2024 at COEX Mall in Seoul’s Gangnam-gu District. (Korea International Trade Association)
By Lee Dasom
Export growth from January to May was the highest among the world’s top 10 exporting countries thanks to strong performances by semiconductors and cars.
CEIC Data, a provider of information on the global economy, on July 29 said Korea’s export growth of 9.9% from January to May was the highest among the top 10 exporting countries from the same period last year.
Korea’s export growth was far higher than those of Mexico (4.4%), the U.S. (1.4%), China (0.1%) and Italy (0.1%).
Japan, Germany, France, Canada and the Netherlands suffered declines.
Exports saw high growth due to rising demand for semiconductors and cars due to the popularity of eco-friendly vehicles.
If this trend continues in the second half, Korea could surpass France, Italy and Japan to rank among the top five on the list.
Exports in the first half of this year hit USD 334.8 billion, up 9% from USD 307 billion year on year.
Data from the Korea International Trade Association showed that exports last year ranked eighth worldwide at USD 632.6 billion. France was seventh with USD 648.1 billion, Italy sixth USD 676.7 billion and Japan fifth with USD 717.3 billion.
The gap between Korea and others on the list in export amount was just a few tens of billion USD, so if this strong growth continues, the country could break the world’s top five this year.
dlektha0319@korea.kr
