S. Korea’s Economy Posts 3% Growth… Trade Volume Tops $1 Tln

South Korea’s economy saw its growth rate climb up to the three percent range and the nation’s trade volume topped one trillion dollars for the first time in three years. Such upbeat figures are expected to continue in 2018.

South Korea’s real gross domestic product posted growth of one-point-one percent in the first quarter. In the second quarter, the figure slipped to zero-point-six percent before making a surprise jump to one-and-a-half percent in the third quarter. With the surge, the nation’s annual economic growth rate climbed to the three percent range. Exports and government spending led such growth.

Government spending rose two-point-three percent in the third quarter, or the highest in 22 quarters, as the government implemented a supplementary budget and job projects.



On November 17th, exports topped the 500 billion mark at the fastest pace ever since trade data began being compiled in 1956, amid recovery in the global economy.

Driven by strong demand, exports of semiconductors surged more than 50 percent.

Diversification in export items and markets also attributed to the surge in exports. The proportion that the nation’s 13 key export items took up in total exports slipped to 78 percent this year from some 81 percent posted in 2014. Exports to China and the U.S. accounted for 36-and-a-half percent of total exports.

On December 14th, South Korea's annual trade volume topped one trillion dollars for the first time in three years. South Korea had seen its trade volume exceed one trillion dollars for four straight years since 2011 but saw the figure slip below that mark in 2015 and 2016.

Photo : Yonhap News, KBS News

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