Trade deficit doubled year-on-year, semiconductor exports plummeted by 40% ‘neighboring countries neglected’

The trade deficit doubled year-on-year in 40 days this year to reach $17.6 billion, while semiconductor exports plummeted by 40%, revealing the limits of high-price and low-growth economic policies caused by negligence in neighboring countries.
The Korea Customs Service's trade balance from February 1 to 10 was $4.971 billion, and the trade deficit for 40 days from January 1 this year was $17.622 billion, doubling the trade deficit of $8.719 billion in the same period last year. exploded
Exports (preliminary value) from February 1 to 10 were $17.617 billion, an increase of 11.9% from the same period last year, but the number of working days increased by 2 days from a year ago. The Korea Customs Service announced on the 13th.
Semiconductor exports, the largest flagship product, plunged -40.7% in the 10 days of this month, and memory semiconductor exports such as DRAM and NAND flash plunged 44.5% (US$ 4.81 billion) last month. In particular, semiconductor manufacturing equipment imports plummeted -19.1%. and precision equipment (-8.7%) also saw a decrease in imports.
Exports to China fell 13.4% in the first 10 days of February from a 31.4% year-on-year plunge in January, followed by a 22.8% drop in exports to Taiwan.
The increase in exports was limited to the United States (48.0%), European Union (53.3%), and Vietnam (2.3%) for the first 10 days of February. ), etc., the bias increased compared to the same period last year.
The decrease in imports was concentrated in China (-10.3%) and Japan (-3.9%), while the increase in imports was in the United States (31.9%), the European Union (14.1%), and Saudi Arabia (30.3%), as gas imports surged and automobile exports increased. This reflected the neglected structure of neighboring countries, where the share increased by 167%.
Imports from February 1 to 10 were $22.588 billion, up 16.9% from the same period last year, with crude oil (44.9%), gas (86.6%) and semiconductors (3.4%) increasing.
During this period, exports decreased by 16.6% year-on-year to $46.27 billion, which was the fourth consecutive month of decline and the largest monthly decrease in 2 years and 10 months since May 2020 (-23.7%).
The trade deficit is a record of 12 consecutive months of deficit from March of last year to February beyond last January, and shows the fixation of high inflation and low growth system in import price increase.