Ministry of Industry says January exports are likely to slow down temporarily...We are fully prepared for effective measures."

As exports are expected to slow temporarily this month, the government has decided to make every effort to include effective measures for pan-governmental emergency export measures.

Park Sung-taek, the first vice minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said at a meeting to examine export trends by major items held today that the export environment is changing rapidly due to the launch of a new U.S. government, and export conditions are particularly severe in the first half of the year.

Last year, the Lunar New Year in February was in January this year, and the number of working days in January is four fewer than in the same month last year as the Lunar New Year holiday is prolonged due to the designation of an additional alternative holiday.

As a result, the Ministry of Industry predicted that exports will also partially decrease as production in major manufacturing industries such as automobiles decreases.

"Exports are expected to be particularly difficult in the first half of this year," Industry Minister Ahn Deok-geun said during a visit to the Korea International Trade Association yesterday. "We are preparing emergency export measures for ministries with the aim of announcing next month."