In the aftermath of the global re-spread of COVID-19, Korea’s exports of diagnostic reagents (HS3822) have also expanded again.
However, the cumulative export growth rate turned negative as it still did not reach the same level last year.
According to the data from the Korea Customs Service, exports of diagnostic reagents in November amounted to $184.21 million, up nearly $30 million from $155.4 million in October.
As exports of diagnostic reagents increased significantly to around $300 million in November and December of last year, the negative growth rate exceeded 30% for three months in a row, a 37.4% negative growth year-on-year.
Accordingly, cumulative exports for 11 months also fell 3.4% year-on-year to about $1.8 billion, turning negative.
Imports of diagnostic reagents rose 5.3% year-on-year to $77.09 million and have continued to grow for 22 consecutive months since February last year. Over the past three months, the growth remained around 5%.
Nevertheless, the cumulative 11-month imports reached $800 million, up 19.2% year-on-year, close to 20%.
In the meantime, as exports of medications increased in November from October, the trade surplus also returned to the $100 million mark in two months.
However, since the trade surplus easily exceeded $200 million in November last year, it was less than half year-on-year. Even so, since April last year, the surplus march has expanded to 20 months.
Moreover, the cumulative surplus, which maintained its growth until September and turned into a negative growth trend in October, fell 16.1% year-on-year to about $1 billion in November, widening the negative growth to double-digit.
