South Korea’s exports are expected to recover, but at a slower pace compared with the past. This is attributed to a smaller gap in competitiveness against China.
“Even if the sluggishness of the information technology (IT) industry cycle eases from the second half of this year, exports are not expected to rebound by as much as in the past due to structural changes in the Chinese economy,” the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.
The BOK stated that recent weakness in exports to China was 35% due to structural factors such as higher competitiveness of Chinese companies; 65% resulted from a cyclical factor of weak demand.
The estimates were based on data comparison before and after China scrapped its stringent COVID-19 lockdown measures late last year, according to the report.