Exports shrink 1.9% on-year in November

South Korea’s exports dropped slightly from a year earlier last month, but its trade surplus widened as imports shrank at a faster rate, the government said Monday.

Outbound shipments came to $46.99 billion in November, down 1.9 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Imports dropped 4 percent on-year to some $41.38 billion.

The country posted a trade surplus of about $5.61, compared with a surplus of 4.8 billion in November 2013. It was Korea’s 34th straight monthly trade surplus.

The drop in exports was largely attributed to a cut in the number of working days.

“Overall exports somewhat shrank due to a cut in the number of working days by one from a year earlier, but the growing trend continued as seen in the rise in the daily average amount of exports,” the ministry said in a press release.

The daily average amount of exports came to $2.09 billion last month, compared with $2.04 billion in November 2013, it added.

Exports to the United States jumped 20.8 on-year last month, but shipments to most other major economies shrank significantly.

Shipments to China, the world’s single largest importer of South Korean products, slipped 3.2 percent on-year with shipments to European Union countries shrinking 6.7 percent.

By product, shipments of semiconductors spiked 16.7 percent on-year with exports of steel products also surging 13.3 percent.

Outbound shipments of automobiles dropped 5.5 percent with shipments of petroleum products, such as gasoline, plunging 21.6 percent. (Yonhap)