Roundup: South Korea keeps record-breaking trade surplus in April

South Korea's economy maintained a record-breaking trend of trade surplus in April as imports reduced at a faster pace than exports, a government report showed Friday.

Trade surplus reached 8.49 billion U.S. dollars in April, keeping a record-breaking surplus trend for three months in a row, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Trade balance stayed in black for 39 straight months since February 2012. The robust surplus came on the back of faster fall in imports than exports, indicating a so-called recession-type of trade surplus.

Exports, which account for about half of the economy, declined by 8.1 percent from a year earlier to 46.22 billion dollars in April. Imports tumbled 17.8 percent to 37.73 billion dollars, reflecting a faltering domestic demand.

Both the exports and imports reduced together for the fourth consecutive month amid global trade weakness, oil price fall and lower export prices.

The country's exports retreated 0.9 percent in January, 3.3 percent in February and 4.3 percent in March respectively. For the first four month of this year, exports sank 4.3 percent compared with the same period of last year.

Cheaper crude oil pulled down export prices of oil products. When excluding oil and petrochemical products, exports volume increased 1.2 percent in April.

Exports of oil products and petrochemicals tumbled 43.3 percent and 20.1 percent each, and those for consumer electronics declined 24.3 percent.

Shipments of display panels, cars, ships, textiles, auto parts, steels and telecommunication devices all reduced last month on a yearly basis, but computer exports jumped 37.3 percent, with those for chips and general machinery rising 7.5 percent and 12.2 percent respectively.

Except the Middle East, the country's exports declined in all regions. Shipments to the United States fell 2.7 percent in April amid the U.S. economic slowdown after surging 17 percent in March.

Exports to China, South Korea's No.1 trading partner, declined 5.2 percent in April, keeping a downward trend for three months. Those to the European Union, Japan and the ASEAN dropped more than 10 percent, but shipments to the Middle East nations inched up 1.4 percent.

The ministry expected the country's exports to keep a downward trend in May amid lower export prices especially in oil and chemical products before rebounding in June for export growth of newly launched cars.

Meanwhile, the imports kept a trend of sharp reduction for the seventh straight month. For the first four months of this year, the inbound shipments plunged 16 percent compared with the same period of last year.

Crude oil imports plunged 42.5 percent in April from a year earlier due to lower oil prices. Imports of oil products, natural gas, steel and coal tumbled 48.9 percent, 38.1 percent, 23.2 percent and 10.8 percent respectively.

Import prices of crude oil averaged 57.7 dollars per barrel in April, down from 108.3 dollars a year earlier.

Imports of raw materials decreased 25.8 percent last month, but those for capital and consumer goods increased 2.1 percent and 4.7 percent respectively. Endi