Trade balance in South Korea

South Korea's trade balance measures the gap between goods exports and imports on a customs-cleared basis over a month, in billions of US dollars. A positive balance is a surplus and a negative one a deficit. It is released by the Korea Customs Service in its monthly foreign-trade report.

Balance = exports minus imports for the month (customs-cleared values). The customs service publishes a preliminary figure (잠정치) around the 1st-2nd of the following month and a confirmed figure (확정치) around the 15th. Values come from the release table (millions of USD) and are shown in billions of dollars.

Korea is a heavily export-driven economy (semiconductors, cars, petrochemicals), so its trade balance is a gauge of the global export cycle and weighs on the won. A widening surplus tends to support the won, while a deterioration often signals softer external demand or costlier energy imports.

The preliminary figure (잠정치) is revised in the confirmed print (확정치), and the two can differ by a few tenths. It is a goods series on a customs basis, not the current-account balance, which includes services and income and is released by the Bank of Korea.