South Korea’s annual trade volume is expected to surpass the trillion-dollar mark for the first time in three years.
 
The Institute for International Trade affiliated with the Korea International Trade Association(KITA) forecast in a biannual report on Monday that the country will post one-trillion and five-billion dollars’ worth of trade this year, up eleven-point-five percent from last year.
 
Exports were forecast to reach 542 billion dollars, or nine-point-four percent more than last year, while imports were expected to grow 14 percent to 463 billion dollars.
 
In the first five months of the year, exports logged an average monthly growth of 16-point-three percent, fueled by the booming semiconductor and organic light-emitting diode(OLED) industries, oil price hike, and diversification of exports goods, among other things.
 
In particular, an average monthly export growth rate of 17-point-one percent between January and April was more than double the global average during the same period, helping South Korea become the world’s sixth largest exporter from the eighth last year.