South Korea
South Korea ships memory chips, screens, ships, and cars to everyone. Because its customs office publishes trade numbers so fast, economists worldwide watch Korean exports as an early thermometer for global trade.
Latest monthly exports (fresher reading)
0.1bn US$
+48.8% vs a year earlier
as of April 2026
OECD compilation of official data, ~2-month lag — the long-history chart below runs on a slower mirror.
Monthly exports
The total value of everything South Korea sold abroad that month — because Korea ships so many electronics and industrial parts, a drop here is an early sign world trade is cooling.
Values converted from million US$ to billion US$ for readability.
- Newest data point:
- May 2025
- Last checked:
- 6 September 2026
- Updates:
- monthly
- Confidence:
- high
Reminder: a weak month can have many causes — currency moves, holidays, one-off factory shutdowns. Changes here are correlated with global supply conditions, but correlation is not causation.
Common questions
Why are South Korea's exports considered an early-warning signal?
South Korea publishes trade data unusually fast, and its exports — memory chips, ships, cars — track global factory demand closely. Economists worldwide watch Korean export trends as an early thermometer for the health of world trade.
What does a drop in Korean exports usually signal?
A sustained decline often signals cooling demand from the countries and factories that buy Korean chips, ships, and cars — since those goods feed directly into other countries' manufacturing, a Korean export slowdown can be an early sign of broader trade weakness.