(Bloomberg) -- South Korea's exports are on course for a ninth straight monthly decline as trade battles and slowing economic growth worldwide raise fears of a global recession.
Exports during the first 20 days of August fell 13% from a year earlier, data from the Korea Customs Service showed Wednesday. Semiconductor sales plunged 30%, while shipments to China, the biggest buyer of South Korean goods, slid 20%. Total exports fell 12% from a month earlier.
The weak trade data reinforce the downbeat outlook for South Korea's export-dependent economy, which is forecast to expand at the weakest pace in a decade this year. In addition to the U.S.-China tension, South Korea also faces a trade battle with Japan, which has tightened export controls on certain materials essential to the production of memory chips.
South Korea's 20-day trade data is closely watched as an indicator for global demand, due to their early release and Korean companies' deep integration into the global supply chain.
South Korea's overall imports fell 2.4% for the first twenty days of August from a year earlier. Exports to the U.S. edged down 8.7% while those to Japan decreased 13%. Imports from the U.S. dropped 3.6%, while those from Japan declined 8.3%.
--With assistance from Michelle Seoh.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sam Kim in Seoul at skim609@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net, Jiyeun Lee, Henry Hoenig
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