SOUTH KOREAN exports in November fell for the 12th month in a row and far more than expected, denting hopes for the global manufacturing sector stabilizing. Exports declined 14.3 percent in November from a year earlier, trade ministry data showed yesterday, far below a median 10.2 percent fall tipped in a recent poll and missing even the worst forecast in the survey of an 11.1 percent loss. It was also the second-worst drop in overseas sales in nearly four years as global semiconductor prices failed to turn around while China, the country’s biggest export market, continued to cut down purchases from its neighbors. The surprisingly weak November data from a manufacturing powerhouse, which reports monthly trade data ahead of major exporting nations each month, underscores the global economy still far from a turning point. “The optimism for the first-phase trade deal between the China and United States will take time before actually boosting exports, and today’s poor data means the turnaround in exports is taking longer than expected,” said Chun Kyu-yeon, economist at Hana Financial Investment. Shipments to China fell 12.2 percent in November from a year earlier, while overseas sales of semiconductors, South Korea’s top export item, tumbled by 30.8 percent in value as prices plunged this year from a super-rally last year. Imports fell 13 percent year on year in November. That brought the November trade balance to a US$3.37 billion surplus. Yesterday’s data left shipments for the first 11 months of this year 10.7 percent below a year earlier, putting the country on track for its worst annual exports performance since a 13.9 percent fall in 2009 during the height of a global financial crisis.(SD-Agencies) |