to 24.1 percent in 2012 (January to October).
2) Decreased Concentration on High-ranked Items Since the financial crisis, the proportion of Korea’s 10 major export items have declined slightly, representing some improvement in trade diversification. The proportion of top 10 export items, based on MTI’s three-unit classification of 144 items, slid from 61.3 percent in 2008 to 58.5 percent in 2012 (January to October). The proportion of top 5 export items also declined from 43.7 percent to 41.2 percent during the same period. The concentration of high-ranked items showed an overall increase up until the financial crisis but a decline thereafter.
The Herfindahl Index, which uses the top 50 items, also dropped 11 percent from 0.050 in 2009 to 0.044 in 2012, showing that Korea’s export items are becoming diversified. [The Herfindahl Index is calculated by adding the square of the proportion of each of the top 50 export items. Higher index figure means higher concentration or dependence on high-ranked items.]