South Korean exports during the Dec. 1-20 period fell 0.7 percent to $30.273 billion over the comparable period last year while imports dropped by a sharper 7.4 percent to $28.626 billion, the Korea Customs Service data showed.
The customs agency only released the total value on its website without elaborating.
Thomson Reuters calculations show that in terms of the average value per working day, exports for the Dec. 1-20 period this year were 3.7 percent less than a year earlier and imports were 10.2 percent less.
The government is due to release export and import figures for the whole of December on Jan. 1, as the first major exporting economy in the world to report its monthly foreign trade data.