Exports from South Korea fell again in September

SEOUL – South Korea’s exports declined 8.3% y/y in September, following a 14.9% fall in August. The improvement was due to strong demand for mobile phones (+40.9%) and automobile parts (+5%). However, imports plunged by 21.8% y/y, compared with a 18.3% drop previously. The trade surplus widened significantly to USD8.9illion for September.

Separately, industrial production edged up 0.3% y/y in August, and services production increased 2.1% y/y as hospitality and transportation sectors picked up after the MERS incident earlier this year.
Overall, ANZ Bank says the data suggests that Korea may not be able to attain 2% GDP growth in Q3, pending industrial and service production statistics for September. For Q3 as a whole, exports declined 9.4% y/y, compared with a 7.2% drop in Q2.
On average, industrial production declined 1.5% y/y in July and August. Manufacturing activities in Q3 have been weaker than that in Q2, offset partially by an improvement in tourism. The large trade surplus likely reflected a drop of imports for production activities in September, ANZ says. www.live.anz.com (ATI).