사상 최초 연간 수출 6,000억 달러 돌파...세계 7번째
An historic milestone in the nation's exports, seen as the pillar of the South Korean economy.
Today, Seoul reached 600 billion U.S. dollars in annual outbound shipments.
Kim Hyesung has the full story.
South Korea's annual exports have surpassed six-hundred billion U.S. dollars for the first time.
The trade ministry says as of 11:12 AM Friday, Korea's annual exports topped the 600 billion dollar mark... seven years after the country achieved 500 billion dollars of annual exports back in 2011.
This makes Korea the seventh country in the world, after the U.S., Germany, China, Japan, the Netherlands and France to have topped 600 billion dollars in annual exports.
Korea's exports also accounted for a record 3-point-four percent of global exports this year, ranking sixth in the world.
Between 1948 and 2017, Korea's exports have grown by an average of sixteen percent per year, or a 30-thousand fold growth in total.
The trade ministry said in 2018, Korea's semiconductor, machinery and petrochemical goods exports and consumer goods like cosmetics and medicine contributed significantly to boosting exports.
Semiconductor exports alone passed the 100 billion dollar mark as a single export good as of October this year.
But amid an ongoing trade spat between Korea's top two trading partners, the U.S. and China, and slower global growth, the trade ministry vowed to further diversify its exports and target export markets like ASEAN countries, India and Russia to top 600 billion dollars of exports again next year.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.
