The Federation of Korean Industries(FKI) has forecast that South Korea’s exports will post a new record high this year. 

The top business lobby said Tuesday that it expects the nation’s exports to come in at around 645 billion dollars this year, marking a new record. In issuing the outlook, the FKI took into account that exports in the first ten months of this year saw a growth of 26 percent compared to the same period last year. 

The federation also projected that exports will top 700 billion dollars by 2024 if they continue to post a growth of two-point-97 percent, or the annual average growth posted over the past five years. 

Currently, there are only five countries in the world whose exports have exceeded the 700 billion dollar mark as of 2019, or before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. They are China, the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Japan. 

The federation said it expects exports, which have kept at the 500 billion dollar level in the past decade, to post a double digit growth this year and continue to grow thanks to active advance investment by domestic companies.