Korea to hit highest-ever share of global exports

Korea is expected to grasp its highest-ever ratio of world exports this year on the back of the global economic recovery and robust sales of semiconductors, a think tank said Sunday.

In a latest report, the Institute for International Trade, a research center of the Korea International Trade Association, said South Korea is on track to exceed the existing record ratio of 3.19 percent, set in 2015, out of the total global exports.

“Global economic recovery and increasing demand for Korea’s value-added information-technology products will help increase the country’s exports further,” the report said.

In the first half of this year, Korean exports accounted for 3.33 percent of global exports. And the ratio of exports’ contribution to the country’s economic growth reached 78.5 percent, the highest in five years since 2012 when the corresponding figure was 93.9 percent, it said.

In October, Korean exports rose 7.1 percent to $44.98 billion from a year earlier, marking a 12-month consecutive gain, according to data from the trade ministry.

Korea’s finance ministry, central bank and the International Monetary Fund recently forecast Korea’s economy will grow 3 percent this year.

YONHAP