Exports fell sharply year-on-year, South Korea’s trade deficit hit a new high in January – Teller Report

According to the “Import and Export Trends in January” data released by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Resources of South Korea on February 1, Xinhua News Agency, South Korea’s exports in January decreased by 16.6% year-on-year, imports decreased by 2.6% year-on-year, and the trade balance showed a deficit of US$12.69 billion. , creating a record high monthly deficit.

South Korea’s January export value was US$46.27 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 16.6%, which was significantly higher than the year-on-year decrease of 9.5% in December last year; January import value was US$58.96 billion, of which US$15.8 billion was imported energy, accounting for 26.8% of total imports, much higher than The average energy import value in January from 2013 to 2022 is US$10.3 billion.

As a result, South Korea’s trade deficit in January was 12.69 billion U.S. dollars, a record high in a single month’s deficit, far exceeding the record of 9.44 billion U.S. dollars set in August last year. According to Yonhap News Agency, this is also the first time in 25 years that South Korea has experienced a trade deficit for 11 consecutive months. The longest consecutive run of trade deficits higher than this was between January 1995 and May 1997.