SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s exports fell in February for a fifth straight month in annual terms, trade ministry data showed on Wednesday, although at a slower pace than in January due mainly to calendar effects related to national holidays.
Outbound shipments from Asia’s fourth-largest economy fell 7.5% to $50.10 billion in February from a year earlier, whereas imports rose 3.6% to $55.40 billion. As a result, the country posted a monthly trade deficit of $5.30 billion.
Exports fell by a slower pace than a 16.6% drop in January mostly because there were two more working days in February this year than in the same month of 2022 due to the different timing of the Lunar New Year holidays.
In a Reuters survey, exports in February were forecast to be 8.7% less than a year earlier whereas imports were seen growing 4.0% from a year before.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Choonsik Yoo and Christopher Cushing)
