SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) - South Korea's exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products posted a double-digit increase last month on the back of strong demand for locally-made semiconductors, a government report showed on Wednesday.
The ICT exports reached 13.83 billion U.S. dollars in January, up 16.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was the country's second-biggest monthly expansion following an 18.6 percent increase in May 2013.
Semiconductor exports registered the biggest monthly figure of 6.41 billion dollars in January, up 41.6 percent compared with a year ago.
Display panel shipments jumped 15.6 percent to 2.32 billion dollars, with those for computers and peripheral devices growing 7.9 percent.
Mobile phone exports tumbled 36.4 percent to 1.21 billion dollars as negative effect continued from Samsung Electronics' discontinuation of its flagship Galaxy Note7 smartphone.
The country's ICT product imports advanced 14.8 percent to 7.79 billion dollars, sending the January trade surplus in the sector to 6.05 billion dollars. It almost doubled a 3.2 billion-dollar surplus in all industries.
