South Korea’s exports will likely grow at a much slower pace in 2012 than last year as the eurozone debt problems and the global economic slowdown could weaken demand, the finance ministry and the central bank said Friday.

The government needs to push for export-boosting measures tailored to each country and beef up efforts to diversify its export markets, according to a statement unveiled after the ministry and the Bank of Korea held a consultation meeting.

The meeting was attended by Vice Finance Minister Shin Je-yoon and the BOK‘s senior deputy governor Lee Ju-yeol.

“We both expected (our) exports growth will drop to a single digit this year due to a slowing global economic growth caused by the eurozone fiscal debt crisis,” the statement said.

“We shared the view that we need to push for export-boosting measures that are tailored to each individual overseas market, while nurturing new markets as part of the ongoing effort to diversify exports destinations.”

The gloomy outlook for exports is in line with the government’s earlier market assessment. In December, the government predicted that exports will expand just 7.4 percent this year, far slower than a nearly 20 percent growth posted for last year.

Additionally, the ministry and the BOK shared the view that the nation needs to brace for any fallout from European banks‘

deleveraging as it could negatively affect trade financing for many South Korean exporting companies.

There is no significant impact at this point, but there was agreement to act “preemptively” by drawing up measures to support trade financing for Korean exporters if things get worse, the statement said.

Both entities are worried that the current international raw material prices will remain higher than expected amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran over the latter’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

They agreed to keep monitoring the Iranian situation and the overall raw material market, according to the statement.

(Yonhap News)