S.Korea's current account surplus hits 8-year low in H1

Source: Xinhua | 2020-08-07

South Korea's current account surplus hit the lowest in eight years in the first half due to an economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak, central bank data showed Thursday.

Current account surplus amounted to 19.17 billion U.S. dollars in the January-June period, down 15.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It was the lowest first-half amount since 2012 amid the negative effect from the COVID-19 pandemic that lowered outbound shipment.

Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, declined 13.1 percent over the year to 241.93 billion dollars in the first half, while import slipped 9.8 percent to 217.94 billion dollars.

Services account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, logged a deficit of 8.41 billion dollars in the first half, the lowest deficit since the first half of 2016.

Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, recorded a surplus of 3.89 billion dollars in the first half, up 3.19 billion dollars from a year earlier.

Current account surplus in June was 6.88 billion dollars, marking the highest in eight months since last October.

Trade surplus for goods amounted to 5.87 billion dollars in June, while the services account balance posted a deficit of 1.26 billion dollars in the month.

The primary income account recorded a surplus of 1.74 billion dollars in June, down from a surplus of 2.07 billion dollars tallied a year earlier.

Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, posted a net outflow of 7.15 billion dollars in June.