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SEOUL, July 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, fell 2.7 percent in June from a year earlier, the lowest monthly decline in a year, a government report showed on Friday.
The June exports reached 45.3 billion U.S. dollars, down from 46.56 billion dollars tallied a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The country's exports maintained the longest monthly fall for 18 straight months since January last year, but the falling pace slowed from 11.2 percent in April to 6.0 percent in May and 2.7 percent in June each.
Daily average exports amounted to 1.97 billion dollars in May, the highest in nine months. In local currency terms, the exports increased 2.4 percent in May from a year earlier, raising corporate profitability for local exporters.
Imports declined 8.0 percent from a year earlier to 33.66 billion dollars in May. Both exports and imports reduced for 18 straight months since January last year.
Helped by faster fall in imports than exports, trade surplus reached a new monthly record high of 11.64 billion dollars in May. The trade balance stayed in black for 53 months from February 2012. Enditem
