South Korea's exports inched down from a year earlier in January, but its trade surplus jumped as imports dropped at a faster rate, the government said Sunday.

The country's overall outbound shipments slipped 0.4 percent on-year to $45.37 billion last month, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Imports plunged 11 percent on-year to about $39.84 billion.

The trade surplus came to $5.53 billion, compared with a surplus of $810 million in the same month last year.

January marked the 36th consecutive month the country has posted a trade surplus.

Both imports and exports were influenced by a plunge in global oil prices.

"Combined shipments of all other products except petroleum and petrochemical products rose 6.6 percent on-year in January, reflecting a strong growth of exports for goods that are not affected by the drop in oil prices," the ministry said in a press release.

Shipments of semiconductors, the country's single-largest export item, surged 13.7 percent on-year with exports of ships spiking 62.5 percent.

The average price of Dubai crude, which accounts for over 80 percent of the country's overall oil imports, has been cut by more than half from $104 per barrel in January 2014 to $45.8 per barrel last month, according to the ministry.

In January, South Korea's exports of petroleum products plunged 38.5 percent on-year to $2.92 billion although shipments, in terms of volume, spiked 13.2 percent to 45.4 million barrels.

Imports of oil dropped nearly 42 percent on-year to $5 billion last month from $8.6 billion a year earlier with those of petroleum products, such as gasoline and diesel, also plunging 51.9 percent to some $1.5 billion.

Imports of consumer products, on the other hand, surged 19.2 percent on-year in January.

By country, exports to the United States surged 15.2 percent from a year before with shipments to China, the biggest importer of South Korean products, gaining 5.3 percent on-year.

Shipments to Japan dropped 19.2 percent while shipments to the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations slipped 8.3 percent. (Yonhap)