Korea's export growth to edge up to 1.6%

Two good months in a row.

According to DBS, industrial production (October) and external trade data (November) are due this week. Export growth is expected to rise steadily to 1.6% YoY in November, marking a positive growth for the second consecutive month and improving further from 1.1% in October.

Here's more from DBS:

Based on the preliminary data in the first 20 days of November, exports grew 1.7% from the year ago period. While exports to the US could be temporarily disrupted by the hurricane, exports to China should have continued the recovery trend.

The value of exports to China has increased 9.7% cumulatively in the past two months (on sequential basis, seasonally adjusted). We expect Korea’s exporters will continue to benefit from China’s recovery, due to the close trade connections with China, as well as the trade substitute effects resulting from the China-Japan tensions.

Thanks to the rebound in exports, industrial production is projected to rise further by 1% MoM sa in October after turning positive in September (0.8%).

Production in the automobile sector, which was dragged down by the labor strikes this summer, has started to pick up since September. A steady recovery in the automobile sector has been sustained in October, as revealed by the industry data from the KAMA.

The electronics sector should also see better output growth, although underperforming the strong rise in electronics exports due to the still high inventory level in this sector.