S KOREAN JUNE EXPORTS DROP 13.4PCT YEAR-ON-YEAR.

SEOUL, July 2 Asia Pulse - Exports decreased 13.4 percent to US$13.2 billion in June from a year earlier, marking decreases four months in a row, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said Sunday.

The number represents the largest drop since February 1999, when exports declined by 16.8 percent on-year.

Ministry statistics show that the United States, Japan and the European Union also suffered major setbacks in exports with the decrease rates of 29.2 percent for the United States and 18.6 percent both for Japan and the European Union.

The country's imports also fell 11.1 percent on-year to $11.7 billion, allowing the monthly trade surplus to hit $1,485 million in June.

The aggregate trade surplus for the first six months this year was $6.4 billion with $78.9 billion in exports and $72.4 billion in imports.

The ministry attributes the two-digit drop in monthly exports to reduction in exports of semiconductors and computers to the United States and other advanced countries where economic slowdown continues.

By export items, semiconductors suffered the largest 48 percent cutback, followed by 15-percent drop in textile, 9 percent fall in petrochemical products and 5 percent decrease in steel products.