Trade with China, once the source of South Korea's largest surplus, has become its largest deficit.

According to the Korea International Trade Association(KITA) on Tuesday, South Korea posted a deficit of three-point-93 billion dollars in trade with China in January to log the largest trade deficit among all partners for the month.

The cumulative deficit in January and February reached five-point-07 billion dollars to post the largest deficit for South Korea over the cited period.

The situation is not showing signs of improvement in March, with outbound shipments to China as of March 1 through 20 dropping 36-point-two percent on-year, while inbound shipments rose nine-point-one percent.

Economic stagnation driven by Beijing’s “Zero COVID” policy was cited as the key cause of reduced exports, while imports from China surged in the wake of rising prices of industrial materials.

South Korea posted its largest trade surplus in 2018 with China at 55-point-six billion dollars, followed by its second-largest surplus in 2019, the third-largest in 2020 and again in 2021. 

Last year, trade with China slipped precipitously to make it South Korea's 22nd-largest partner by trade surplus, with the deficits recorded so far this year putting the country at risk of logging a deficit with China for the first time since 1992 should the trend extend to through the year.