South Korea's exports of information technology (IT) products contracted 3 percent in May from a year earlier due to growing external uncertainties such as Europe's debt crisis, a government report showed Thursday.

Exports of locally-manufactured IT products amounted to 12.94 billion U.S. dollars in May, down 3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. For the first five mounts of this year, the exports reached 60.38 billion dollars, down 5.8 percent from the same period of last year.

The IT exports logged the negative on-year growth for three months in a row due to spreading external uncertainties such as the European fiscal crisis, the ministry said.

Despite the minus export growth, trade surplus in the sector reached 6.57 billion dollars in May, more than double from 2.4 billion dollars in the black for all industries. It was due mainly to steeper drop in IT imports that amounted to 6.37 billion dollars in May, down 8.4 percent from a year before.

Among three major IT export items, chips and display panels showed improvement in their exports, but handset shipments kept its downward trend due to rising production in overseas factories, according to the ministry.

Exports of semiconductors rose 1.7 percent on-year to 4.25 billion dollars in May due to strong demand for system chips that outnumbered the continued contraction in memory chip shipments. Outbound shipments of memory chips plunged 20.3 percent to 1.76 billion dollars last month, but system chip exports surged 32.6 percent to 1.9 billion dollars, posting the on-year growth for 33 straight months.

Shipments of display panels declined 0.2 percent on-year to 2.7 billion dollars in May, up from a 1.6 percent contraction tallied in April. The improvement was attributed to strong demand from the European Union (EU) ahead of the London Olympic Games.

Handset exports plunged 36.7 percent on-year to 1.55 billion dollars in May, keeping the 30 percent-range decline for the sixth consecutive month. South Korea ranked first in terms of global market share of mobile phones and smartphones, but exports continued their downward trend due to local firms' expansion in overseas production.

Exports of computer and computer-related products such as printers and monitors jumped 22.5 percent on-year to 670 million dollars in May. Computer exports surged 180.3 percent to 130 million dollars amid solid demand for tablet computers and lap tops, while computer-related product exports grew 18.6 percent to 480 million dollars due to growing demand for locally-made solid state disk (SSD) and monitors.

Outbound shipments of TVs dropped 14.4 percent on-year to 520 million dollars in May expanded exports of premium LED TVs were offset by weak demand for TV components.

By country, exports to China, including Hong Kong, grew 4.8 percent on-year to 6.46 billion dollars in May, with shipments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expanding 18.9 percent to 1.43 billion dollars.

Shipments to the United States and Japan dropped 31.7 percent and 3.2 percent each last month from a year before, but exports to the EU edged up 1.5 percent to 1.24 billion dollars, the first growth in 19 months, due mainly to positive effects from the London Olympic Games.