South Korea became the world's third-largest exporter of cosmetics products in 2020 with its trade balance in the sector remaining in the black for nine straight years, government data showed Monday.

The country exported $7.57 billion worth of cosmetics goods last year, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

South Korea's exports were third in the world, trailing France and the United States.

Asia's fourth-largest economy posted a $6.4 billion surplus in the cosmetics trade last year, up from a surplus of $5.41 billion a year earlier.

Last year's surplus in the cosmetics trade accounted for 14.3 percent of South Korea's overall trade surplus of $44.87 billion.

The percentage was up from 13.6 percent in 2019, 7.1 percent in 2018 and 4 percent in 2017.

Cosmetics exports to China came to $3.87 billion in 2020, taking up 50.3 percent of the total. Shipments to Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan, Britain, Canada and the US also went up.

South Korea exported cosmetics products to 160 countries last year, compared with 137 a year earlier.

South Korea's cosmetics output, however, amounted to 15.2 trillion won ($13.4 billion) in 2020, down 6.8 percent from the previous year, according to the data. (Yonhap)