South Korea's exports maintain strong growth momentum, highlighting economic resilience ahead of central bank rate decision.

South Korea's exports maintained strong growth momentum in October, with booming global demand for artificial intelligence driving semiconductor shipments, highlighting the economy's resilience on the eve of the central bank's interest rate decision. According to customs data released on Wednesday, adjusted for working-day differences, exports in the first 20 days of October rose 65.9% year-on-year. The increase in the same period of September was 89.8%. Unadjusted data showed exports rose 105.4%, imports rose 42.8%, and the trade surplus was $14.5 billion. Total exports in the first 20 days of this month were $61.6 billion, compared with $71.4 billion in the same period of September. Because this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday fell in September and last year's in October, the year-on-year data are distorted, and working-day-adjusted data better reflect the underlying trend. The semiconductor industry remains the main engine of economic growth, with chip exports surging 222.5% year-on-year to $27.5 billion. Petroleum product exports rose 68.3%, and automobile exports rose nearly 41%. These data further confirm that the economy is driven by the semiconductor industry, while also keeping inflation elevated. The data will also provide important considerations for the Bank of Korea, which will announce its interest rate decision on Thursday. The market widely expects the Bank of Korea to keep policy unchanged, as it weighs the impact of recent rate hikes.