Exports to key emerging economies that trade with South Korea declined sharply in the first two months of the year, official data showed Monday, as many are cautious about an expected U.S. interest rate hike.

According to data by the Korea Customs Service and Statistics Korea, the country's exports to 19 emerging markets in January and February stood at US$36.69 billion, down 6.2 percent on-year from $39.09 billion tallied for the same two-month period in 2014.

Emerging markets include large trading partners such as China, Russia, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela.

The rate of decrease is three times as steep as the overall 2.1 percent on-year drop in exports in the first two months, numbers showed. Asia's fourth-largest economy shipped out $572.66 billion worth of goods as of end-February, up from $555.96 billion exported a year earlier.

Shipments to Venezuela and Chile were down 46.7 percent and 15.3 percent on-year this year, with double-digit losses also reported for exports to Argentina and Libya.

The drop is troubling for South Korea because emerging countries make up about half of its overseas market.

Government officials and economic observers said the drop in export numbers comes as the Fed has hinted it will raise its interest rate in the coming months, which could lead to more returns on U.S. Treasurys and bank deposits. Such developments are expected to draw money away from riskier emerging markets that had benefited from easy cash in the past. An outflow of funds could also weaken currencies and hurt the stock markets of those countries, which could sap consumer demand.

In addition, data showed that a recent drop in crude oil prices is taking its toll on exports to Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and 13 other oil producers.

In January and February of this year, South Korea's exports to oil-rich countries reached $7.67 billion, down 4.4 percent from $8.02 billion the year before.

This drop comes after total exports to these countries declined from $49.35 billion in 2013 to $48.87 billion last year.

Oh Jung-keun, a visiting researcher at the Korea Economic Research Institute, said that in the face of prevailing international financial market conditions, exports to emerging economies is bound to decline.

He said that if the withdrawal of funds from emerging markets is drastic, South Korea will be hard-pressed to increase exports by more than 1 percent on-year in 2015, vis-a-vis the 2.4 percent reached last year. (Yonhap)