A clearer picture of the global economy’s health is starting emerge after months of difficult-to-interpret comparisons to a year ago.
South Korea posted an exports gain of almost 30% in the first 20 days of June from a year earlier, but the pace of rise was much slower than in May when they jumped by a 10-year high of more than 50%.
That’s because skewed base effects — in this case, comparisons to the sharp drops a year ago — are wearing off. International commerce underwent its roughest patch of the pandemic from March to May last year and started a painfully bumpy recovery last summer.
With summertime under way again and low bases fading, South Korea’s export figures for all of June are unlikely to soar like they did in April and May but should still look healthy.
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