The current account balance, which is the broadest measure of cross-border trade, registered a deficit of 80 million U.S. dollars in April, marking the first deficit in 24 months since April 2020, according to the Bank of Korea.
Trade surplus for goods declined to 2.95 billion U.S. dollars in April from 4.95 billion dollars a year earlier amid a higher import cost, caused by expensive raw materials.
Export gained 11.2 percent over the year to 58.93 billion dollars in April, while import surged 16.5 percent to 55.98 billion dollars.
Services account balance, which gauges the flow of travel, transport and royalty, recorded a surplus of 570 million dollars in April, turning around from a deficit of 130 million dollars tallied a year earlier.
Transport account surplus advanced to 1.76 billion dollars in April from 650 million dollars a year ago.
Travel account balance logged a deficit of 590 million dollars in April, unchanged from the same month last year.
Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, hit a deficit of 3.25 billion dollars in April due to a huge deficit in dividend account balance that amounted to 3.82 billion dollars.
Financial account, which measures cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, recorded a net outflow of 1.7 billion dollars in the cited month.
Overseas direct investment by domestic residents expanded by 5.7 billion dollars, while foreign direct investment in South Korea grew by 80 million dollars.
For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond trading, overseas investment by local residents, soared by 7.2 billion dollars.
Foreign investment in local stocks and bonds was reduced by 1.69 billion dollars in the month.
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