Korea posted a trade surplus of $2.20 billion in February buoyed by a steady rise in overseas demand for locally made goods, a government report showed Thursday.

The favorable trade balance is a turnaround from the $2.03 billion deficit tallied for the previous month, according to the monthly report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

Exports came to $47.18 billion last month, up a solid 22.7 percent on-year, with imports jumping 23.6 percent to $44.98 billion, the report said.

“Overseas demand for such products as autos, steel, petroleum products and ships pushed up exports last month despite heightened uncertainty triggered by rising international crude oil prices,” the ministry said in a press release.

Despite lingering eurozone debt problems, the release said, outbound shipments to advanced industrialized economies rose last month.

Exports to the United States and the European Union jumped 64.5 percent and 30.4 percent, respectively, on-year, with numbers for Japan rising 31.9 percent.

South Korean products also did well in developing economies with exports to China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Middle East all increasing by double digits from a year earlier.

Imports grew at a brisk pace in the face of steady rises in the prices of crude oil and natural gas.

“Commodities imports including crude oil soared 24.7 percent in the first 20 days of February, up from a gain of 15.1 percent a year earlier,” the ministry in charge of trade promotion said.

Despite a deficit posted in January, it added, South Korea’s trade balance reverted back into the black by around $165 million for the first two months of the year.

Korea’s trade volume topped $1 trillion for the first time in its history last year, fueled by a 19.3 percent spike in exports that reached $556.51 billion. This made Asia’s fourth-largest economy the ninth country in the world to reach that landmark figure in trade. (Yonhap News)