South Korea's trade volume will likely reach a new annual high this year, exceeding US$1 trillion in the shortest time ever, a ranking government official said Wednesday.
  
"The country's overall trade volume is expected to breach the 1 trillion mark around Nov. 25 or 26," the official said, asking not to be identified.
  
It will mark the fourth consecutive year that South Korea has met the mark since 2011, but the first time that the threshold has been reached before the start of December, the official said.
  
In the first 10 months of the year, the country's overall trade volume came to $917.6 billion with both exports and imports growing 2.9 percent on-year to $447.13 billion and $440.47 billion, respectively, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
  
The government official said the country's total trade volume is expected to reach $1.1 trillion this year, the highest amount ever, and likely to be the eighth-largest in the world. In 2013, the country's overall trade was the world's ninth-largest.
   
"Over $1.1 trillion in trade will likely place the country before Hong Kong," he said while speaking to reporters.
   
The more positive aspect of the growing trade, the official said, was a large rise in exports by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which more easily translates into new jobs and a jump in income and spending than increased exports by large firms.
   
The official said exports by SMEs have gained 5.3 percent on-year as of the end of October, with exports by large businesses growing 1.5 percent.
  
SMEs account for only about one-third of the country's overall exports as only 2.7 percent, or about 87,000 out of 3.2 million of them, are in the trade business. However, SMEs account for nearly
88 percent of all jobs in South Korea.
  
"One of the reasons people do not see improvements to their livelihoods despite a large increase in exports is because large companies have done most of the exporting," the official said.
  
"The large increase in exports by smaller firms, on the other hand, will have a positive effect on creating new jobs, and thus improving the livelihoods of ordinary citizens." (Yonhap)