South Korea - Exports of Goods





South Korea: Exports of Goods

Mnemonic TREG.IKOR
Unit Ths. USD, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly 4.2 %
Data Feb 2024 52,400,000
Jan 2024 54,700,000

Series Information

Source Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE)
Release Foreign Trade
Frequency Monthly
Start Date 1/31/1966
End Date 2/29/2024

South Korea: Trade

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Balance of Goods Feb 2024 4,300,000 300,000 Ths. USD, NSA Monthly
Exports of Goods Feb 2024 52,400,000 54,700,000 Ths. USD, NSA Monthly
Imports of Goods Feb 2024 48,100,000 54,400,000 Ths. USD, NSA Monthly
Current Account Balance Jan 2024 3,045 7,414 Mil. USD, NSA Monthly
Exports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 258,426 243,500 Bil. KRW, SA Quarterly
Imports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 247,005 237,104 Bil. KRW, SA Quarterly
Net Exports 2023 Q4 11,421 6,396 Bil KRW, SA Quarterly
Real Exports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 235,662 227,733 Bil. Ch. 2015 KRW, SA Quarterly
Real Imports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 197,123 194,415 Bil. Ch. 2015 KRW, SA Quarterly
Real Net Exports 2023 Q4 38,538 33,317 Bil. Ch. 2015 KRW, SA Quarterly

Release Information

For South Korea, external merchandise trade: import and export price indexes, nominal and real, detailed by KSIC; terms of trade indexes.

The "net barter terms of trade" index measures the quantity of imports that can be purchased through the sale of a single unit of exports, relative to a base year.

The "income terms of trade" index measures the quantity of imports that can be purchased through the sale of gross exports, relative to a base year.

Active:

  • Classification: KSIC
  • Measurements:
    • Volume index relative to 2015 (Vol. Index 2015=100)
    • Value index (Index 2015=100)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Monthly
  • Start date: Uniformly 1988m1

Predecessors:

  • 2010=100 - 1988m1 to 2019m3 ("_10")
  • 2005=100 - 1988m1 to 2012m12 (no specifier)
  • 2000=100 - 
  • By country in USD - 1990m1 to 2014m5 (no specifier)
  • By commodity in USD - 1988m1 to 2008m6 (no specifier)

Trade statistics comprise all goods which add to or subtract from the stock of material resources of South Korea by entering (imports) or leaving (exports) its economic territory (with the exceptions mentioned below).

Korea's trade statistics include export and import statistics. The Korea Customs Service (KCS) is responsible for collecting, processing, compiling and publishing the statistics of country's exports and imports.

The legal basis for compiling and publishing the trade statistics of Korea is the Customs Act of the Republic of Korea.

The Clearance Planning Division of Clearance Facilitation Bureau is the responsible division in charge of the trade statistics affairs. In general, it abides by the UN recommendation (International Merchandise Trade Statistics; Concepts and Definitions, Rev. 2) in compiling trade statistics.

Export statistics

  • Goods exported through the customs clearances (including postal items)
  • Exports manufactured at bonded factories or free export zones
  • Returns of imported goods - Re-exports of imported goods after processing procedure

Import statistics

  • Goods imported through the customs clearances (including postal items)
  • Returns of exported goods
  • Re-imports of exported goods after processing procedure
  • Goods authorized to use at bonded-factories or free trade zones after introduced to these areas

Time of recording

Imports and exports are recorded on the following dates:

  • Goods for import and export : date of acceptance of declaration
  • Goods approved for use prior to the acceptance of import : date of approval
  • Goods approved for use in bonded factory, bonded construction site, export free zone : date of approval for use 

Timeliness

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) publishes trade data on the first business day of each month.

Data Buffet also carries detail from the Bank of Korea (BOK) and Statistics Korea; these are published with a longer lag.

Yes. The previous period and same period last year (M-1 and M-12) are revised in the latest release.

Related series

MOTIE Statistics Korea
Low precision High precision
TR$TBUM.IKOR n/a
TR$EXUM.IKOR TRNEXUM.IKOR
TR$IMUM.IKOR TRNIMUM.IKOR

Interpreting the data

External merchandise trade data may be based on monetary exchange or on the physical quantity of goods. Globally, terminology is not entirely standardized, and some definitions conflict.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) reports analytic variants that it calls price index, value index and volume index. Its methodological documentation is not entirely clear. The BOK "value indexes" appear to derive from the dollar-denominated trade levels (reported by MOTIE). The equivalency is evident if you frequency-convert the monthly data to annual:

  • (100 * TRNEXUM.IKOR / TRNEXUM.IKOR[2015]) ~ TRIEXTTUM.IKOR
  • (100 * TRNIMUM.IKOR / TRNIMUM.IKOR[2015]) ~ TRIIMTTUM.IKOR

Further reading

Korea Customs Service:

Bank of Korea:

Bank of Korea - ECOS Economic Statistics System:

IMF (SDDS):

  • Sep 2005 - Initial version.
  • May 2008 - Rebased to 2005.
  • Sep 2008 - Terminated detail by principal commodity.
  • Aug 2013 - Rebased to 2010, reclassified to KSIC Rev. 9.
  • Jul 2014 - Terminated detail by country.
  • Jul 2019 - Rebased to 2015.
  • 15 Aug 2023, Phillip Thorne - Further reading.
  • 29 Aug 2023, Phillip Thorne - Interpreting the data.