South Korea's vulnerability to external shocks appears to have increased, with foreign trade — imports plus exports — now accounting for 31.5% of total transactions in 2022, up 2.7 percentage points from the previous year, the Bank of Korea (BOK) announced Tuesday.

The trade dependence spike comes as both consumer and business confidence deteriorated, separate datasets showed Tuesday. First, the central bank’s consumer sentiment survey on Tuesday showed that the citizens’ future economic outlook index fell 7 points — its steepest decline since July 2022; and then, the Business Sentiment Index (BSI) remained in the negative for a record-long 33 consecutive months, matching the longest pessimistic streak set between June 2018 and Feb. 2021 since the survey began five decades ago.