Global Trade Collapsed In January: Bellwether South Korea Exports Crash "Most Since Lehman"

Again, I have pointed out many times that Korea's export-dependent economy is in trouble.  Policy makers have known it, yet ignoring or covering up.  The mercantilist export-dependent model by the East Asian countries was flawed from the start.  Financialization can't do much at all. 

From Zero Hedge:

As the first major exporting nation to report each month, all eyes and hopeful speculative capital was glued to tonight's South Korean trade data. After a brief respite in November, December's drop was worrisome, but January's just reported 18.5% crash - the most since the financial crisis - has only been seen during a US economic recession. Worse still, South Korean imports plunged over 20% in January as it appears crashing crude and cliff-diving freight indices are less about supply and more about demand (there is none) after all.



Furthermore, with China accounting for around one quarter of South Korean exports - and following a 16.5% YoY plunge in December - tonight's headline data suggests January was a total disaster for the Chinese economy also... though later we will get the PMI data to explain everything.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/global-trade-collapsed-january-bellwether-south-korea-exports-crash-most-lehman