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WRAPUP 1-S.Korea exports collapse, rate cut seen next week
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WRAPUP 1-S.Korea exports collapse, rate cut seen next week
Reuters - Tuesday, February 3
* Exports fall at record pace as global demand collapses
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* Inflation eases for sixth straight month to 11-month low
* Analysts see sixth rate cut in four months next week
By Yoo Choonsik
SEOUL, Feb 2 - South Korean exports suffered their biggest ever drop in January, adding to a run of unsettling news on Monday and piling pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates again next week to shore up Asia's fourth-largest economy.
The deepening economic gloom coincides with the start of a new session of parliament where opposition anger over police handling of a protest threatens to stall reforms the government wants to push through to limit the fallout of the global downturn. [ID:nSEO273315]
South Korea, the first big Asian exporter to report trade data each month and an early guide to the state of global demand, said exports last month fell a record 32.8 percent from a year earlier as consumers and companies around the world cut spending.
Imports fell 32.1 percent as its own consumers joined the belt-tightening. [ID:nSEO254383].
Japan, China and a number of other export-reliant economies have also reported a collapse in trade in recent months, with the technology industry hit especially hard by worsening consumer demand in the United States and Europe.
Underscoring the severity of the downturn, Yonhap news agency quoted an International Monetary Fund official as saying that South Korea's economy will shrink "substantially" in the whole of 2009, even though it should begin recovering later this year. [ID:nSEO312647]
The Bank of Korea's official forecast still talks about modest 2 percent growth this year, but corporate news from a nation that is home to leading makers of computer chips, mobile phones, autos and ships, painted a darker picture.
CORPORATE PAIN
Hyundai Motor <005380.KS>, the world's No.5 carmaker with its affiliate Kia Motors <000270.KS>, and other local auto makers reported combined sales in January tumbled more than a third in volume from a year earlier.
The world's No. 4 steelmaker POSCO <005490.KS> said it would maintain an output cut in February as demand from automakers and its other clients remains weak. [ID:nSEO251561]
And Shinhan Financial Group, the country's top financial holding firm by assets, reported a smaller-than expected rise in quarterly profit as it set aside funds to cover potential losses from corporate borrowers. [nSEL000483]
One bit of positive news was that annual consumer inflation in January slowed for the sixth straight month to a more than expected 11-month low of 3.7 percent, as cooling demand more than offset a boost to import prices from the won's plunge against the dollar over a year earlier. [ID:nSEV000597]
Trade figures for the first 20 days of January, the most up-to-date data on individual markets, showed that exports fell to all destinations -- including to China by 32.2 percent, to the United States by 21.5 percent, and to Europe by 46.9 percent.
CAUTION ON RATES
Analysts said the latest data reinforced their view that the Bank of Korea would cut interest rates again next week to a fresh record low, but bond futures prices more than gave back early gains as expectations for a big cut waned.
"All the latest data points to a deepening slump and calls for more rate cuts, but I wonder if the central bank would react as aggressively as investors think," said Kim Dong-whan, a fixed-income analyst at HI Investment & Securities.
"The Bank of Korea may end up cutting the rates by only 25 basis points this time to save room for future actions and prepare for less painful exit out of the crisis."
The central bank has more than halved its base rate in the past four months to a record low of 2.5 percent and next reviews the rate on Feb. 12.
Analysts say it may stop with rates somewhere below 2 percent to save its ammunition in case the situation deteriorates further.
The government of President Lee Myung-bak, whose popularity has plunged since taking office about a year ago on growing discontent over the economy, has pledged around $100 billion to to stimulate domestic demand.
But there have been few signs yet that those efforts are paying off. Central bank estimates showed late last month that the economy suffered its second-deepest contraction in the fourth quarter of 2008. [ID:nSEO314023]
Lee's ruling conservative Grand National Party wants to pass more measures in the new parliamentary session, including a free trade bill with the United States, tax cuts, easing restrictions on bank ownership and privatising state-run firms. [ID:nSEO137692]
But analysts said the opposition may hold up the session by bringing up last month's police intervention in a protest, in which five protesters died.
* For graphics on South Korean exports, double-click: https://customers.reuters.com/d/graphics/KR_EXP0209.gif
* For graphics on South Korean inflation, double-click: https://customers.reuters.com/d/graphics/KR_CPI0209.gif
* For South Korean measures on crisis, see [ID:nSEO299632]
* For South Korean economic outlook, see [ID:nSEO38169] (Additional reporting by Cheon Jong-woo, Seo Eun-kyung and Jack Kim; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Tomasz Janowski)
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