S. Korea posts current account surplus for 4th month in May

By Park Bo-ram
SEOUL, June 26 (Yonhap) -- South Korea posted a current account surplus in May
for a fourth straight month as imports fell faster than exports, but the amount
narrowed from the previous month, the central bank said Friday.

The current account surplus stood at US$3.63 billion in May, compared with $4.25
billion a month earlier, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a report. The current
account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade in goods and services.
The current account has been in the black since February as imports dropped at a
faster pace than outbound shipments. The expanding surplus has boosted the local
currency, which gained 22 percent as of Thursday since plummeting to an 11-year
low in early March.
According to the report, the surplus in the goods account was $5.02 billion last
month, compared with a $6.13 surplus in April. Imports plunged 39.4 percent
on-year to $22.9 billion last month while exports fell 27.3 percent to reach
$27.9 billion.
A shortfall in the service balance, which includes South Korean spending on
overseas trips, widened to $1.47 billion in May from $1.11 billion the previous
month as a stronger won prompted more Koreans to travel overseas, it said.
The income account, which tracks wages for foreign workers and dividend payments
overseas, swung to a surplus of $360 million last month, compared with a deficit
of $856 million in April, as overseas dividend payouts declined.
The capital account, which tracks cross-border investments, posted a net inflow
of $6.72 billion compared with a surplus of a revised $2.16 billion a month
earlier.
The central bank said in early April that South Korea is forecast to post a
current account surplus of around $18 billion this year, down from a previous
estimate of $22 billion. The government predicted that the surplus will likely
reach around $16 billion.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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