Market Update: Korea logs deficit in knowledge, culture services trade in 2025: BOK – Full Analysis

 

Korea recorded a deficit in knowledge and culture-based services trade in 2025, due mainly to widening deficits in royalties for intellectual property rights and copyrights, central bank data showed Thursday.

 

Exports of cultural, information and knowledge-based services totaled $41.46 billion last year, while imports reached $51.71 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $10.25 billion, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

 


 

The deficit widened from $7.37 billion a year earlier and marked the largest shortfall since 2013, when the country posted a $10.81 billion deficit in this category.

 

These services encompass four areas — intellectual property royalties; information and communication services; cultural and leisure services; and professional and business services.

 

“Exports increased mainly in information provision and platform services, but imports grew more sharply in such areas as research and development, industrial property rights and software copyrights,” Park Sung-gon, head of the BOK’s balance of payments team, told a press briefing.

 

In detail, information and communication services posted a surplus of $5.19 billion in 2025, while cultural and leisure services, such as those connected with K-pop, K-dramas and other content, recorded a surplus of $980 million.

 

But the country registered a deficit of $9.39 billion in professional and business services and a $7.03 billion deficit in intellectual property royalties.

 

“The sharp increase in the use of overseas industrial property rights and professional business services is an inevitable development as Korean companies expand production and investment and strive to strengthen their global competitiveness,” Park added.

Yonhap