The South Korean government on Wednesday announced a set of what it called "short-term measures"to help boost the country's exports.

Under the emergency steps, the government will seek to further boost the country's exports to China, the world's single largest importer of South Korean products.

"Shipments to China already account for over 25 percent of the country's overall exports, but there still is room for improvement in terms of what we export," a ministry official told reporters.

Under its short-term measures, the government will work to boost outbound shipments of consumer goods.

Currently, industrial parts and materials take up a large portion of South Korea's exports to China, making them highly vulnerable to changes in China's exports, the ministry has noted.

The latest measures will also seek to boost exports by the country's small and medium-sized firms.

To this end, the government has identified 101 products in the most promising markets in China for small and medium-sized firms.

They include electronic rice cookers, powdered milk, cosmetics and jewelry.

Such measures come after the country posted an on-year drop in exports for three consecutive months since January.

The drop has been attributed largely to a fall in global oil prices, which, in turn, has led to a cut in prices of petroleum and petrochemical products, key export items of South Korea that together accounted for 17 percent of the country's overall exports in 2014.

In the January-March period, South Korea's overall outbound shipments slipped 2.3 percent on-year to US$572.7 billion while exports of petroleum and petrochemical products plunged 38.6 percent and 19.7 percent on-year, respectively.

Combined shipments of all products except petroleum and petrochemical products gained 3.2 percent on-year over the cited period, the ministry said. (Yonhap)