Current account balance, the broadest measure of cross-border trade, registered a surplus of 270 million U.S. dollars in March, after recording deficits of 4.21 billion dollars in January and 520 million dollars in February, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The March surplus was sharply down from a surplus of 6.77 billion dollars tallied a year earlier, caused by the lasting trade deficits.
Trade deficit for goods came to 1.13 billion dollars in March, staying in red for the sixth straight month.
Export declined 12.6 percent from a year earlier to 56.4 billion dollars in March, and import fell 2.5 percent to 57.52 billion dollars.
Services account deficit stood at 1.9 billion dollars in March, shifting into red from a surplus of 170 million dollars in the same month of last year.
Surplus for primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, expanded to 3.65 billion dollars in March from 1.04 billion dollars a year ago due to higher dividend income from overseas stock investment.
Dividend income account surplus jumped 2.86 billion dollars over the year to 3.15 billion dollars in March.
Financial account, which measures cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, recorded a net inflow of 1.38 billion dollars in March.
Overseas direct investment by domestic residents rose by 4.52 billion dollars, and foreign direct investment in South Korea gained by 2.64 billion dollars.
For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond trading, overseas investment by local residents climbed by 3.02 billion dollars, while foreign investment in domestic stocks and bonds fell by 3.33 billion dollars.
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