South Korea is expected to become the world's eighth-largest trading country
this year despite a global economic downturn that has led to the reduction of
trade volume of most key nations.
The country's trade volume is
expected to somewhat dwindle from a year earlier as its exports in the
January-November period came to US$503 billion, down 0.9 percent from the same
period last year, with its imports also shrinking 0.5 percent on-year to $476.5
billion, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
Still, the
country's total trade volume already exceeded $1 trillion last month, breaching
the $1-trillion mark for the second consecutive year.
"Though it took
a little longer than last year, breaching the $1-trillion mark for two years in
a row despite an overall reduction of global trade says a lot about the
country's strength," an official from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy
said.
In 2011, South Korea's trade volume breached the $1-trillion
mark on Dec. 5, making the country the world's ninth-largest trading nation and
also the world's ninth nation to reach $1 trillion in trade.
This
year, the country is expected to move up a notch to eighth place, surpassing
Italy, according to the ministry. The gap between South Korea and other key
trading countries is also narrowing as accumulative exports of Germany and
France in the January-September period dropped 5.1 percent and 5.3 percent,
respectively, from a year earlier.
The ministry official attributed
the relatively smaller reduction of South Korea's exports to three factors --
free trade agreements (FTAs), growing shipments of the country's small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the government's strategic development of
new overseas markets.
In the first 10 months of the year, the
country's shipments to EU member countries dropped 11.5 percent from the same
period last year, but the ministry says the drop would have been much greater
had it not been for the Korea-EU FTA that went into effect in July
2011.
"Considering that the ongoing global economic downturn stems
from the eurozone debt crisis, the country's FTA with the European Union served
as a support to keep the country's exports to the EU from further dropping," the
ministry said earlier.
The country's exports to the United States in
the January-October period gained 5.8 percent from a year earlier due, partly
to, large increases in items that mostly benefited from the Korea-U.S. FTA, such
as automobile parts and machinery. The Korea-U.S. FTA went into effect in
March.
The country's exports also got a boost from growing shipments
by its SMEs, whose total exports rose 3.2 percent on-year in the first nine
months of the year while those of large firms dropped 2.4 percent from a year
earlier, according to related data provided by the Korea Statistics.
The Ministry of Knowledge Economy claims such a growth of shipments by smaller
companies was partly made possible through its strategic support for marketing
in developing markets.
South Korea's exports to the 10 member
countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations surged by an estimated
10 percent on-year in the January-November period with shipments to Middle
Eastern countries also jumping 13.8 percent on-year during the cited period,
according to the ministry.
The Korea International Trade Association
earlier forecast the country's exports will grow 4.6 percent on-year in 2013 to
$575 billion.
A ministry official agreed the country's outbound
shipments will likely grow but by a smaller margin and mostly because of what he
called a "base effect."
"The global economic conditions will continue
to be unfavorable for the country's exports, though they will not much worsen
next year," Han Jin-hyun, head of the ministry's trade-investment policy bureau,
told Yonhap.
"The country's annual exports will somewhat shrink this
year from last year, but in 2013, they are expected to grow between 2-3 percent
from this year partly due to a base effect."