S Korea reports 6.1% rise in Oct IT exports 

(MENAFN) South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced that in October, the country's exports of information technology (IT) products rose 6.1 percent from the same period a year ago to USD14.55 billion, reported Xinhua News.

The ministry said that in the January-October period, IT exports fell 2.6 percent from 2011's same period, reaching USD127.68 billion.

The main exported items in October were handsets, which grew 18.1 percent on annual basis to USD2.26 billion, whereas exports of semiconductors rose 6.8 percent to USD4.64 billion.

On the other hand, exports of memory chips fell 11.8 percent to USD1.6 billion, however, exports of system chips increased 24.1 percent to USD2.52 billion, and exports of display panels went up by 3.2 percent to USD3. 01 billion.

The ministry added that exports of computer and computer-related products slipped 1.1 percent to USD690 million.

Furthermore, TV exports declined 11.2 percent to USD550 million, while exports of LCD TVs climbed 34.4 percent and exports of TV components declined 17.5 percent.

It is worth noting that last month; South Korea's imports of IT products grew 10.9 percent to USD7.45 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of USD7.1 billion in the IT sector.