South Korea's exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products fell for six straight months amid global economic slowdown, a government report showed Wednesday.
The ICT exports declined 5.0 percent from a year earlier to 13. 97 billion U.S. dollars in March, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The downward trend has continued since October last year. The continued decline was attributed to global economic slowdown that weakened demand for ICT products.
The falling pace, however, slowed from a 9.8 percent reduction in February thanks to demand for newly released mobile phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S7 smartphones.
Mobile phone exports increased 7.9 percent from a year earlier to 2.32 billion dollars in March. Semiconductor shipments shed 1.8 percent to 5.29 billion dollars, with exports of display panels and computers slumping 25.2 percent and 8.2 percent respectively.
By region, ICT exports to the United States and Vietnam jumped more than 40 percent last month due to demand for new smartphones. Shipments to China, South Korea's largest trading partner, shrank 9.1 percent to 7.02 billion dollars.
Trade surplus in the ICT industry reached 5.96 billion dollars in March, accounting for almost two thirds of 9.8 billion dollars of trade surplus for all industries.
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