As a typical export-oriented country, South Korea is also known as the "global economic canary".The upside of South Korea's April export leading index has signalled that global demand is staying strong.

On Thursday, April 21, the preliminary statistics released by the Korean Customs Office (Customs) show thatSouth Korea's exports rose 16.9% in the first 20 days of April from a year earlier to $36.285 billion.The number of start-up days was 15.5 days, the same as last year, and the average daily export volume also increased by 16.9% compared with the same period last year.

Without excluding the start date factorIn each category dataExports of petroleum products rose 82 per cent year-on-year, semiconductors 22.9 per cent, auto parts 3.9 per cent, passenger car exports down 1 per cent and wireless communications equipment 10.7 per cent.

According to the export destinationAccording to the report, South Korea's exports to Chinese mainland rose 1.8 percent year-on-year, 29.1 percent to the United States, 12.3 percent to the European Union, 37.3 percent to Vietnam and 9.6 percent to Japan, but exports to Hong Kong, China fell 32.3 percent.

South Korea's economy is export-oriented and highly dependent on overseas markets, so it has long been a leading indicator for the global economy. From an industrial point of view, South Korea's semiconductors, cars and smartphones are relatively strong.

Import sideIn the same period, South Korean imports surged 25.5% year-on-year to US $41.484 billion. As a result, South Korea has a trade deficit of US $5.199 billion, which is much wider than the US $2.032 billion in the same period last year.

South Korea posted two consecutive months of trade deficit in December and January due to factors such as rising commodities, including oil prices. Although there was a surplus in February, the trade deficit in March returned to $140 million, and South Korea's April export leading index indicates that the trade deficit is likely to continue in April.

As of April 20, South Korea had a cumulative trade deficit of 9.157 billion US dollars this year, compared with a surplus of 7.769 billion US dollars in the same period last year.

Data released today show that South Korea's overall export performance remains strong, as the Bank of Korea predicted earlier this year. Against this background, many economists believe that if the South Korean economy does not have obvious risk characteristics, the new governor of the Bank of Korea, Rhee Changyong, who takes office today, may adhere to the road of normalizing monetary policy and seek to further raise South Korea's benchmark interest rates.