The Recent Upturn in Korea’s Exports: Background and Implications

Jung Min Han ()
Additional contact information
Jung Min Han: Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, Postal: Sejong National Research Complex, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, 370 Sicheong Dae-ro C-dong 8-12F 30147, Republic of Korea, http://www.kiet.re.kr

No 21/12, i-KIET Issues and Analysis from Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade

Abstract: As of May 2021, Korea’s exports recorded a 23.4 percent year over year increase.This upturn is considered to be the result of the recovery and rebound from the COVID-19-induced recession. Factors that have contributed to this upturn include the activity in the so-called “untact” (contact-free) economy, the reflexive benefits of heightened environmental concern, and the potential for realizing growth utilizing new economic growth engines. Healthy performance in the areas of biohealth, rechargeable batteries, and other new export growth engines are contributing greatly to the positive trend in exports. Though exports are expected to remain steady this year, the second half of 2021 is expected to show a relative slowdown due to the base effect of the previous year and reduced demand for products that benefited from the untact economy. This analytical brief describes necessary policy steps to take in preparation for the post-COVID global trade environment.

Keywords: COVID-19; Korea; climate change; climate policy; environmental policy; exports; recession; recovery; business cycles; green energy; contact-free economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F44 H12 L52 L53 L62 L63 L65 L68 O24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13 pages
Date: 2021-06-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-int
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4323494 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:kietia:2021_012

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in i-KIET Issues and Analysis from Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade Sejong National Research Complex, Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, 370 Sicheong Dae-ro C-dong 8-12F 30147, Republic of Korea. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Aaron Crossen ().