South Korea’s exports dropped by nearly 20 percent in January from a year earlier.

According to the World Trade Organization(WTO) on Monday, South Korea’s exports in January amounted to 36-point-62 billion U.S. dollars, down 18-point-eight percent from the same month in 2015.

It is a steeper plunge than those of Brazil, which is suffering from an economic crisis. Brazil’s exports fell 17-point-nine percent in January from a year earlier.

During the same period, other major Asian countries also saw more moderate declines in exports compared to South Korea. China's exports dropped eleven-point-two percent and those of Japan slid 12-point-eight percent. Vietnam’s exports only fell zero-point-seven percent.

The pace at which South Korea’s exports fell accelerated from a three-percent decline in the first quarter of last year to eleven-point-nine percent in the fourth quarter.