SEOUL- South Korea’s exports likely eased in July on a fading base effect from last year’s trade slump, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, though robust overseas demand for key items will help extend the double-digit growth.
Outbound shipments in July were seen expanding 30.2 percent from a year earlier, the median forecast in a poll of 16 economists showed, supported by strong demand for South Korean semiconductors, cars, and petroleum products.
That would be slower than the 39.8 percent surge marked in June, but export growth expanded in July for a ninth consecutive month.
“The pace of export growth would slow as the base effect wears off, but the growth would remain at double-digit on strong demand from major economies,” Kiwoom Securities’ economist Kim Yu-mi said.
Strong sales in IT, auto, and chemical sectors might have towed the growth, Lee Seung-hoon, a chief economist at Meritz Securities said, adding that a further expansion in global manufacturing PMIs imply additional demand from abroad.
Business activity in the euro zone expanded at its fastest monthly pace in more than two decades, while that in the United States also continued its expansion in July, surveys showed.
Reuters poll on Thursday also forecast South Korea’s total imports to have risen 42 percent year-on-year, faster than a 40.7 percent increase in June and set for the sharpest growth since May 2010. – Reuters
