Korea reported a third consecutive month of trade surpluses in August.

Exports fell for 11 months straight, but imports plunged further on the fall of energy and raw materials prices, according to data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Friday.

Korea’s trade surplus stood at $870 million in August. Exports were down 8.4 percent to $51.87 billion, while imports slid 22.8 percent in the same period to $51 billion.

“We have seen a trade surplus for three consecutive months despite challenging export conditions such as the rising global key interest rate, delayed recovery in the chip industry and sluggish recovery of China’s economy,” Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang said.

The ministry “will diversify export products” as well as the regions they are shipped to in a bid to raise exports, he added.

Outbound shipments for chips nosedived 21 percent on year last month due to the prolonged weak prices of memory chips that account for a large proportion of Korea’s semiconductor exports.

Automobile exports jumped 29 percent in the same period, showing growth for the 14th consecutive month.

Exports to China fell 19.9 percent, while those to the United States inched up 2.4 percent and exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were down 11 percent.

The fall in imports was attributed to the decline in crude oil, gas and coal, which slid by 40 percent, 46 percent and 42 percent, respectively.

Korea has reported a trade surplus since June 2023 after logging a deficit for 15 consecutive months through May.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]