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South Korea’s headline exports rose for a fourth straight month to reach $54.69 billion in January, as demand for semiconductors continued to improve, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The figure is higher than economists’ forecasts for a 17.6 per cent increase. While, overall imports declined 7.8 per cent in January after dropping 10.8 per cent in December, as the trade surplus narrowed to $300 million.
Other drivers of South Korea’s exports include automobiles, petrochemicals and shipbuilding, which underpin the nation’s broad industrial base. Automobile shipments rose 24.8 per cent from a year earlier in January.