South Korea posted an unadjusted current account surplus of $7.35 billion in March, the Bank of Korea said on Tuesday – remaining in the black for the 25th consecutive month.
The headline figure is up from the $4.52 billion surplus on February and the $3.61 billion surplus in January.
The financial account recorded a net outflow of 5.78 billion dollars, down from 6.92 billion dollars the previous month.
The goods account surplus widened to $8.04 billion, from $5.40 billion the previous month, due to favorable exports of products such as information and communication equipment, passenger cars and semiconductors, the bank said.
The services account deficit narrowed to $0.65 billion from $1.06 billion one month earlier, despite a worsening of the other business account deficit, as the travel and transport account improved.
The primary income account surplus registered $0.32 billion, similar to February’s level.
The secondary income account saw a deficit of $0.36 billion.
Direct investment posted a net outflow of $2.02 billion, down slightly from the net outflow of $2.16 billion the previous month, as foreign direct investment shifted to a net inflow.
Portfolio investment saw a net outflow of 2.01 billion dollars, sharply lower than the $7.39 billion in February, due to a shift to net inflows of foreign investors’ debt securities investment, the bank said.
Financial derivatives posted a net inflow of $0.51 billion.
Other investment shifted to a net outflow of $0.47 billion, from a net inflow of $4.74 billion the previous month, owing largely to decreased borrowings by domestic financial institutions.
Reserve assets increased by $1.79 billion.
Seasonally adjusted, the current account surplus was $6.65 billion – down from $7.57 billion in February.
For the first quarter, the current account surplus was $15.13 billion.
Published: 2014-04-29 01:46:00 UTC+00
South Korea Has $7.35 Billion Current Account Surplus
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