This undated picture shows the Bank of Korea headquarters in Jung District, Seoul. Courtesy of Bank of Korea

The Korean economy became more dependent on trade in 2022 on rising prices of raw materials and strong exports, a central bank report showed Tuesday.

The country's overall industrial transactions rose 14.5 percent from a year earlier to reach 6,808.2 trillion won ($4.85 trillion) in 2022.

Of the total, 31.5 percent was external transactions that involved both exports and imports, up 2.7 percentage points from that logged in 2021, according to the industrial input-output analysis report by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Domestic output accounted for 84 percent of the total industrial production in 2022, down from 86 percent the previous year, while the proportion of imports rose 2 percentage points to 16 percent.

"The import growth was due mainly to the rising import prices of raw materials, including oil and natural gas. We also saw a marked growth in exports that year," a BOK official said.

In 2022, exports rose 6.1 percent on-year to $683.9 billion on strong demand for semiconductors and petroleum products, as well as record sales of electric vehicles and rechargeable batteries.

Imports soared 18.9 percent to $731.2 billion on high global energy prices in 2022, resulting in a trade deficit of $47.2 billion, government data showed. (Yonhap)