[Newsmp] South Korea's pharmaceutical exports fell to $7.87 billion in 2023, down 24.9% from the previous year.
The overall biohealth export value of decreased by 18.0% to $13.35 billion in the same period.
However, the export value of pharmaceuticals and the biohealth industry, which had been in decline for over a year, rebounded from a slump in November and returned to growth.
Korea's monthly pharmaceutical exports in December 2023 rose 8.6% year-on-year to $7.87 billion, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said.
Before that, pharmaceutical exports recorded negative growth for 13 consecutive months from October 2022 to October 2023.
From November 2022 to September 2023, pharmaceutical exports in particular recorded double-digit negative growth for 11 straight months.
In October 2023, the decline in pharmaceutical exports slowed to a single-digit percentage (1.8%), and in November, monthly exports soared 26.5% from a year earlier to reach $708 million, ending the year-long downward trend.
Despite a decline in the growth rate to a single-digit percentage in December, the export value still increased by $75 million from November.
Nonetheless, the annual export value of pharmaceuticals fell 24.9% from 2022's $10.48 billion to $7.86 billion.
The export performance of the biohealth industry also showed a similar trend to pharmaceuticals. The biohealth industry, which entered a recession earlier than pharmaceuticals in July 2022, also recorded negative growth for 16 consecutive months from July 2022 to October 2023.
The decline in biohealth exports narrowed to its lowest level of the year in October 2023. In November 2023, exports increased by 18.8% from a year earlier to reach $1.214 billion, breaking the year-long slump.
Moreover, the biohealth industry also continued to grow in December, but it failed to reach the level of November as it remained in a single-digit growth rate, similar to the pharmaceutical industry.
Monthly exports of biohealth reached a yearly high of $1.299 billion, but annual exports fell 18.0% from $16.287 billion in 2022 to $13.351 billion.
