South Korea's outbound shipments receded over 18 percent last month, continuing the current fall to 13 straight months.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Monday that combined overseas shipments stood at 36-point-seven billion U.S. dollars in the month of January.

Amid dwindling global demand, the January figure is 18-point-five percent lower than the same time last year. The drop is the largest since August 2009.

With imports plunging over 20 percent on-year to 31-point-four billion dollars last month, South Korea's trade surplus stood at five-point-three billion dollars in the month of January.

January marked the 48th straight month of a trade surplus for the nation.