SEOUL: South Korean exports in February rose faster than expected but fell short of relieving fears about the impact of slowing global demand on Asia's fourth-largest economy, government data showed on Thursday.
Exports rose 22.7 percent to $47.2 billion in February from a year earlier, while imports grew 23.6 percent to $45.0 billion, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a statement.
Both exports and imports beat the median forecasts in a Reuters survey for annual growth of 19.0 percent and 22.3 percent, respectively. The result followed a shock 7.0 percent fall in exports in January.
South Korea's foreign trade and other key economic indicators for January and February are significantly distorted by the Lunar New Year festival, which falls alternately between the two months.
Analysts tend to take the two months as one period to assess near-term performance of the heavily cyclical economy because many companies in South Korea shut factories for more than the official three days for the traditional festival.
Exports for the January-February period rose 6.8 percent from a year earlier while imports grew 12.7 percent, the data showed, both continuing their slowdown since late 2011 as the euro zone's fiscal crisis took a toll on the global economy.
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