S Korea's IT Exports Drop 1.6 % in July

Exports by South Korea's information technology (IT) industry shrank in July from a year earlier, marking the fifth consecutive month of on-year decline, the government said Monday. The country's IT exports came to US$12.79 billion last month, down 1.6 % from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The July figure also marks a drop from $12.9 billion in the previous month. Still, the country's trade surplus in the IT sector inched up to $6.43 billion from $6.31 billion a year earlier as inbound shipments of IT products dropped at a faster rate of 4.9 % on-year to $6.36 billion. The ministry attributed the fall in exports to a large drop in outbound shipments of mobile phones, including smartphones, which plunged 34.2 % on-year to $1.42 billion