Brightbridge Wealth Management Headlines: Weaker prices dent S. Korea’s IT exports in Aug.

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SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) — South Korea’s exports of information technology (IT) products shrank from a year earlier for the second straight month in August largely on lower global prices, the government said Wednesday.
The country exported US$13.06 billion worth of IT products last month, down 2.4 percent from $13.39 billion in the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
The country’s trade surplus in the IT sector dwindled from slightly over $7 billion last year to $5.97 billion as its IT imports surged 11.2 percent on-year to $7.1 billion.
In the first eight months of the year, South Korea shipped $99.75 billion worth of IT products, up 34.7 percent from the same period last year.
“Overall exports dropped in August due to a drop in prices of some products, including computer memory chips and display panels, but exports of mobile phones jumped 10.2 percent to $2.07 billion amid improving competitiveness of smartphones by local manufacturers,” the ministry said in a press release.
South Korea became the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of smartphones in the second quarter of the year with a 23.1 percent share of the global market, and also the world’s largest supplier of all mobile phones with a 24 percent global market share in terms of monetary value, it said.