Risk and sentiment
Korea Exports YoY
Year-over-year growth in Korean export value.
At a glance
Korea Exports YoY: latest value and prior change
As of 2026-05-31, Korea Exports YoY is 53.37 %. It is 5.48 pp higher than 47.89 % on 2026-04-30.
Across 305 available observations from 2001-01-31 to 2026-05-31, the latest value is at the tie-adjusted 100th percentile.
- Observed on
- Default comparison window
- 2001-01-31–2026-05-31
- Observations · observed cadence
- 305 · Monthly
- Data source
- Bank of Korea ECOS
A high or low percentile does not by itself make the indicator positive, negative, or a buy or sell signal.
Time-series chart
Korea Exports YoY
2001-01-31–2026-05-31
Long-history series are stored as real provider observations. Index, FX, VIX, and ratio charts use historical backfill where providers expose it; Korean investor flow and margin-credit feeds expand as stable historical endpoints become available.
Interpretation guide
Stripping calendar and product distortions from Korean exports
Korea Exports YoY measures customs-cleared export value against the same month a year earlier, released on the first day of each month and widely used as one of the earliest global trade signals. Working-day counts and product mix distort the headline enough that raw readings often mislead.
Daily-average exports over the headline
The position of Lunar New Year or Chuseok holidays and differences in business days can swing the growth rate by several percentage points on their own. Practitioners therefore rely on daily-average export growth, dividing the total by working days, to judge the underlying trend.
- When headline and daily-average growth carry different signs, trust the daily-average signal.
- For holiday months, check whether the holiday fell in the same month last year, and average across two months.
- Interim figures for days 1-10 and 1-20 precede the full month, so learn how they typically deviate from finals.
Dissecting product and destination mix
Export growth driven by semiconductor prices has a different durability than growth driven by auto or ship volumes. Shipments to China and to the US frequently diverge, so the destination split reveals what kind of global demand is at work.
- Given the chip weighting, open Korea Semiconductor Exports YoY alongside to filter single-product distortion.
- Ship deliveries cluster in specific months, so check for vessel effects before interpreting sharp swings.
- In years of large oil moves, petroleum-product export values swing on price regardless of volume.
Pathways into KOSPI and the won
Korean equities are heavy in export large-caps, so early recoveries in the export cycle have often coincided with index rebounds. Strong exports also improve the trade balance, adding won-appreciation pressure that reinforces foreign flows.
- Inflection points where the YoY decline narrows are worth checking as potential ends of earnings-downgrade cycles.
- When export improvement overlaps with a widening Korea Current Account surplus, conditions for foreign buying improve.
- High growth built on base effects may just mirror last year's slump, so compare levels against two years ago.