S.Korea logs current account surplus for 17 months in September

SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea logged current account surplus for 17 straight months due to the continued recovery in global demand from the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Friday.

Current account balance, the broadest measure of cross-border trade, reached a surplus of 10.07 billion U.S. dollars in September, staying in black for 17 months since May last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

For the first nine months of this year, the current account surplus came to 70.13 billion dollars. It more than doubled the surplus of 27.09 billion dollars tallied in the same nine-month period of last year.

Trade surplus for goods slumped 2.65 billion dollars from a year earlier to 9.45 billion dollars in September due to the faster growth in import than export.

Export kept a double-digit increase by rising 14.5 percent to 56.44 billion dollars, while import surged 26.3 percent to 46.99 billion dollars amid the higher global price for raw materials.

Services account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport cost and royalty, posted a deficit of 20 million dollars in September, down from the deficit of 2.08 billion dollars a year earlier.

The transport account surplus jumped to 2.06 billion dollars in September from 290 million dollars a year earlier. It marked the biggest monthly surplus in the transport account balance.

Travel account balance logged a deficit of 470 million dollars in September, up from the deficit of 380 million dollars in the same month of last year.

Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, recorded a surplus of 750 million dollars in September, up 60 million dollars from a year earlier.

Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, registered a net outflow of 9.78 billion dollars in the cited month.

Overseas direct investment by local residents increased by 4.35 billion dollars, but foreign direct investment in South Korea reduced by 340 million dollars.

For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond transactions, overseas investment by domestic residents expanded by 7.76 billion dollars.

Foreign investment in local stocks and bonds rose by 7.83 billion dollars in September from a year earlier.