South Korea reached a trade surplus of 5.74 billion U.S. dollars in the information technology (IT) sector in January as growing demand from overseas markets boosted local revenue, the government said Wednesday.

Total exports of IT products, which include semiconductors and mobile phones, increased 60.1 percent from the same period of last year to reach 11.07 billion U.S. dollars, while imports grew 29.9 percent to 5.33 billion U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a report.

Despite the global economic downturn and rising overseas competition, South Korea's IT sector saw its exports exceed the 11 billion U.S. dollars mark for the fifth consecutive month, and its trade surplus top 5 billion U.S. dollars for the second straight month, the ministry added.

When broken down by category, exports of semiconductors jumped 116.8 percent annually last month to 3.25 billion U.S. dollars, and display panel exports surged 96.4 percent annually last month amounting to 2.43 billion U.S. dollars, while overseas mobile phone sales slipped 3.4 percent to 2.12 billion U.S. dollars, according to the report.

China and China's Hong Kong markets accounted for the largest share of South Korean IT exports in January, purchasing 5.19 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods, the report added, followed by the European Union and the United States at 1.31 billion U.S. dollars and 1.19 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

Source:Xinhua