#SouthKorea export growth hits four-decade high on #AI chip boom

SEOUL: South Korea’s exports grew more than expected in May at the strongest annual rate in more than four decades, as chip sales hit a record on a global boom in AI investment, bolstering optimism about the trade-reliant economy and its world-beating stock market rally.
Exports from Asia’s fourth-largest economy, a bellwether for global trade, rose 53.2% from a year earlier to a record high of $87.75 billion, preliminary trade data showed on Monday, exceeding the median 48.4% increase forecast in a Reuters poll.
It was the 12th consecutive month of exports growing on a year-on-year basis and the biggest percentage rise since January 1984, bringing a record monthly trade surplus for the country.
“It is truly an unprecedented pace, raising market expectations again and again and exceeding them again and again,” said Stephen Lee, an economist at Meritz Securities in Seoul.
Read more at: The Star
