ROK Dec exports smash record

SEOUL, Jan 1 (Reuters): Soaring global demand for memory chips and petrochemicals helped South Korea's exports surge 8.9 per cent in December, lifting its 2017 shipments to the highest on record in value terms.

Exports for the year as a whole jumped $573.9 billion or 15.8 per cent, data showed on Monday, making last year the best since relevant data began to be compiled in 1956.

The government is expecting still-solid but more modest export growth of 4.0 per cent this year.

With the economy riding the global trade boom, South Korea's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in more than six years in November.

"Downside risks for South Korea are the won's strength, rising interest rates and oil prices.

They are the new three risks," trade minister Paik Un-gyu said in a statement. A further wild cards will be trade talks with the United States, which is keen to revise a 2012 deal to reduce its trade deficit with South Korea. Talks will begin on Jan. 5.

December's 8.9 per cent expansion slightly underperformed the 10.3 per cent growth forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and eased from 9.5 per cent in November.

But six of the nation's major export products, including semiconductors, petrochemical products, computers posted double-digit expansion from a year earlier, even as the month had two fewer working days than in December 2016.

Imports jumped 13 per cent December from a year earlier, beating the 12.1 per cent expansion seen in the survey and 12.7 per cent in the previous month.

South Korea's stellar export performance comes even as the won's strong gains have been making its goods more expensive for global consumers.

The won appreciated 13 per cent against the US dollar last year, ending 2017 at a 32-month high of 1,074.1. For the whole of 2017, exports to China jumped 14.2 per cent, while those to the United States and European Union expanded 3.2 per cent 16 per cent, respectively.

Shipments of memory chips jumped 57.4 per cent last year, while petrochemical goods grew 31.7 per cent.

Imports rose 17.7 per cent in 2017, supported by an increase in equipment needed to produce memory chips and display products, the trade ministry said.