A rarer sight these daysNEW trade figures from South Korea on September 1st surprised even the gloomiest of economic forecasters. The country’s exports shrank by the largest annual amount in six years, down 14.7% last month from a year earlier to under $40 billion, according to the ministry of trade, industries and energy. Few analysts had expected more than a 6% drop: though exports have dropped every month since January, they declined just 3.4% in July in annual terms. Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, tempered its growth forecast for South Korea down to 2.3% from 2.5% for the year.
Exports account for roughly half of South Korea’s GDP—and a quarter of all those go to China, its biggest trading partner. South Korea has been struggling with the rise of its currency, the won, against the Japanese yen in key export markets; now China’s successive devaluations have started to bite. Provisional figures released today showed that South Korean car shipments dropped steeply in August, by nearly a third. Though exports of smartphones rose, fast-rising Chinese handset makers are increasingly vying with Samsung...Continue reading
Source :Business and finance http://ift.tt/1NVdJBG
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