[Newsmp] In April, pharmaceutical products exports fell below $500 million, but rose again to the $600 million mark in a month.
Exports of diagnostic reagents, which exceeded $500 million for three consecutive months at the beginning of the year and fell to the $200 million mark in April, also recovered to $300 million.
According to the data from the Korea Customs Service, pharmaceutical products exports (HS 30) in May amounted to $619.2 million, a 1.0% pullback from a year earlier.
Exports of pharmaceutical products, which exceeded $1 billion in December last year and achieved the highest performance ever, have continued to grow negatively for the fifth month in a row this year.
In particular, in April, the monthly exports fell to $472.21 million, the lowest since April 2021.
On the other hand, pharmaceutical products imports surged during the same period, and the deficit exceeded $600 million in April.
It is the first time in seven months that the drug trade deficit exceeded $600 million since the COVID-19 vaccination became serious in September last year.
Although the negative growth trend continued in May, the growth of pharmaceutical products exports decreased to minus 1.0%, and exports recovered to the $600 million mark again.
During the same period, imports were $931.13 million, up 26.0% from the same period last year, far exceeding exports.
The trade deficit also soared year-on-year to $329.21 million, but it decreased by nearly half compared to the previous month.
Nevertheless, while five-month cumulative exports fell 14.7% year-on-year to $2.9614 billion, imports increased significantly by 35.6% to $4.791 billion, and the cumulative deficit was $1.885 billion, close to the annual deficit ($2.111 billion) last year.
In the meantime, exports of diagnostic reagents (HS3822), which soared with the start of 2022 and stagnated in April, expanded again in May.
Exports of diagnostic reagents have easily exceeded $500 million since January, recording a growth rate of more than 200$. It then maintained exports of nearly $600 million for three consecutive months until March at a triple-digit growth rate.
During the same period, imports also increased by about 10%, but owing to a significant rise in exports, it achieved a surplus of nearly $500 million for three consecutive months.
However, in April, the exports of diagnostic reagents decreased to $267.87 million, less than half of the average monthly exports of the preceding three months.
As a result, the surplus, which exceeded $490 million for three consecutive months, also dropped to $199.51 million.
Nevertheless, in May, exports of diagnostic reagents recovered to a triple-digit growth rate (149.9%) and rose to $358.13 million.
Imports fell 3.8% year-on-year to $67.56 million, and the surplus rose nearly 300% year-on-year to the $300 million mark ($300.56 million).
The cumulative exports of diagnostic reagents for five months jumped 218.1% year-on-year to $2.366 billion, and imports rose only 4.6% to $376.42 million during the same period.
The five-month cumulative trade surplus reached $1.989 billion accordingly, up 418.2% year-on-year, approaching the $2 billion mark, nearly doubling the annual surplus of last year ($1.161 billion).
