South Korea's exports maintained a strong growth trend in October. Strong global demand for artificial intelligence drove an increase in semiconductor shipments, highlighting the resilience of the economy on the eve of the central bank's interest rate decision. According to data released by Customs on Wednesday, after adjusting for differences in working days, exports increased 65.9% year-on-year in the first 20 days of October. The increase for the same period in September was 89.8%. Unadjusted data showed that exports increased by 105.4%, imports increased by 42.8%, and a trade surplus of US$14.5 billion. Total exports in the first 20 days of this month were US$61.6 billion, compared to US$71.4 billion for the same period in September. Since this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday was in September and last year in October, there is a deviation from the year-on-year data, and the data adjusted for weekdays better reflects potential trends. The semiconductor industry remains the main engine of economic growth. Chip exports soared 222.5% from the same period last year to US$27.5 billion. Exports of petroleum products increased by 68.3%, and exports of automobiles increased by nearly 41%. These data further confirm that the economy is driven by the semiconductor industry, while keeping inflation high. The data will also provide important considerations for the Bank of Korea, which will announce its interest rate decision on Thursday. The market generally expects the Bank of Korea to keep its policy unchanged, as the bank is weighing the impact of recent interest rate hikes.

South Korea's exports maintained a strong growth trend in October. Strong global demand for artificial intelligence drove an increase in semiconductor shipments, highlighting the resilience of the economy on the eve of the central bank's interest rate decision. According to data released by Customs on Wednesday, after adjusting for differences in working days, exports increased 65.9% year-on-year in the first 20 days of October. The increase for the same period in September was 89.8%. Unadjusted data showed that exports increased by 105.4%, imports increased by 42.8%, and a trade surplus of US$14.5 billion. Total exports in the first 20 days of this month were US$61.6 billion, compared to US$71.4 billion for the same period in September. Since this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday was in September and last year in October, there is a deviation from the year-on-year data, and the data adjusted for weekdays better reflects potential trends. The semiconductor industry remains the main engine of economic growth. Chip exports soared 222.5% from the same period last year to US$27.5 billion. Exports of petroleum products increased by 68.3%, while exports of automobiles increased by nearly 41%. These data further confirm that the economy is driven by the semiconductor industry, while keeping inflation high. The data will also provide important considerations for the Bank of Korea, which will announce its interest rate decision on Thursday. The market generally expects the Bank of Korea to keep its policy unchanged, as the bank is weighing the impact of recent interest rate hikes.