South Korea's outbound shipments grew at the fastest pace among the world's top 10 exporters in the first eight months of the year thanks to an upturn in global demand, data by the World Trade Organization (WTO) showed Tuesday.
Exports jumped 16.4 percent on-year to US$375.1 billion over the January-August period to retain the position of the world's sixth largest exporter, according to the WTO's monthly merchandise trade data.
The on-year growth by Asia's fourth-largest economy marked the highest gain among the 10 biggest exporting countries in the eight-month period, outpacing the Netherlands' 12 percent and Japan's 8.3 percent growth.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy attributed South Korea's strong performance to the economic recovery in advanced and developing countries and rising demand for information technology products like semiconductors.
Spreading trade protectionism and other downside economic issues will likely weigh heavily on South Korea's exports in the remaining months of 2017, the ministry said.
