About Dotori Economy
A daily record of Korean trade and macroeconomic data, published from the primary sources rather than from other people's coverage of them.
What is published here
The Korean edition has run since 2026 and publishes two pieces a day. This English edition is narrower on purpose. It carries the material that is genuinely hard to obtain outside Korea: monthly semiconductor trade by destination, taken from Korea Customs Service records, together with the analysis built on it. It is not a translation of the Korean edition and does not attempt to mirror it.
Where the numbers come from
Figures are collected automatically each morning at 06:50 Korea time from the following:
- Korea Customs Service for trade by commodity and partner country, including HS 8542.
- Bank of Korea (ECOS) for exchange rates, policy and market interest rates.
- U.S. Federal Reserve (FRED) for U.S. yields and commodity benchmarks.
- Financial Services Commission for listed-company prices, and DART for disclosures.
Series are stored as they are received and are never edited by hand. Where an agency revises a figure, the revision is what appears at the next collection.
Standards
- Every figure carries its reference period. A number without a date is not publishable here, and neither is a number whose source cannot be named.
- Claims are tested against the data, not asserted. Where this publication argues that one series drives another, it also publishes the test that could have refuted the claim, including the control pairs. Several such tests have contradicted the article being written and the article was changed.
- Limits are stated. Sample lengths, missing months and the absence of seasonal adjustment are disclosed where they affect the reading.
- Customs basis is disclosed. Korean exports are recorded free on board and imports cost, insurance and freight, so the two are not directly comparable and the resulting balance is a customs figure, not a balance-of-payments one.
Reuse
Figures and tables published here may be reproduced with attribution to Dotori Economy and a link to the page they came from. The underlying statistics remain the property of the issuing agencies and are subject to their terms.
Contact
Corrections, data questions and collaboration enquiries: dotori.workroom@gmail.com. Corrections are made on the page itself with the change noted.
The Korean edition is at 도토리경제.