South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products dropped 9.4% in April from a year earlier due to external uncertainties such as Europe's debt crisis and slowdown in China's economic growth, a government report showed Monday.

Exports of locally-manufactured IT products amounted to 12.04 billion U.S. dollars in April, down 9.4% from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. For the first four months of this year, the exports contracted 6.4% on-year to 47.5 billion dollars.

The ministry attributed the negative growth to still uncertain external conditions such as the European fiscal crisis, slowdown in China's economic growth and weak economic recovery in the United States. Reduction in business days caused by the April general election also contributed to the negative growth.

Despite the minus export growth, trade surplus in the sector reached 5.72 billion dollars in April, more than double from 2.15 billion dollars in the black for all industries, while imports in the IT sector shrank 5.3% on-year to 6.31 billion dollars last month.

By item, exports of semiconductors declined 7.7% on-year to 3.84 billion dollars in April due to weak demand for memory chips, but system chips, which incorporate software and hardware components, showed outperformance, recording the positive on-year growth for 32 straight months.

Outbound shipments of memory chips plunged 30.8% on-year to 1.54 billion dollars in April, but system chip exports surged 25.7% to 1.73 billion dollars over the same period.

Exports of display panels declined 1.6% on-year to 2.59 billion dollars in April. Shipments of panels for flat screen TVs grew 0.5% to 2.3 billion dollars ahead of major sports event such as the London Olympic Games, but demand for other panel components dropped 13.5% to 0.29 billion dollars.

Shipments of handsets plunged 36.9% on-year to 1.46 billion dollars in April. The country ranked first in terms of global market share of mobile phones and smartpohones, but exports continued their downward trend due to local firms' expansion in overseas production, the ministry said.

Exports of computer and computer-related products such as printers and monitors grew 2.7% on-year to 610 million dollars in April. Computer exports advanced 18.5% to 100 million dollars amid solid demand for lap tops, and computer- related product exports grew 6.7% to 440 million dollars due to strong demand for solid state disk (SSD).

Outbound shipments of TVs tumbled 13.8% on-year to 540 million dollars in April as expanded exports of premium LDC TVs were offset by weak demand for PDP TVs.

By country, exports to China, including Hong Kong, rose 1.2% on-year to 6.12 billion dollars in April, with shipments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expanding 7. 5% to 1.21 billion dollars, but shipments to the United States, Japan and the European Union (EU) dropped 29%, 10.9% and 22.8% respectively.

The ministry said that the country's IT exports were expected to improve at a gradual pace thanks to growing demand for IT products caused by major sports events and benefits from management worsening of rivals in Japan and China's Taiwan as well as expanded exports of products that converge software and hardware such as system chips.