SEOUL, April 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea posted current account surplus for 82 straight months to February on faster fall in import than export, central bank data showed Thursday.
Current account surplus was 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in February, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account balance stayed in the black for 82 months since May 2012.
Trade surplus for goods amounted to 5.48 billion U.S. dollars in February on the faster decline in import than export. It was the lowest in 55 months since July 2014.
Export reduced 10.8 percent over the year to 40.13 billion U.S. dollars in February, while import shrank 12.1 percent to 34.65 billion U.S. dollars.
Lower semiconductor price and soft demand for oil product led to the export reduction in the month.
Services account balance logged a deficit of 1.72 billion U.S. dollars in February, but it was the lowest since December 2016 amid the rising number of Chinese and Japanese tourists visiting the country.
Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, saw a surplus of 360 million U.S. dollars in February, the lowest since August last year.
Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, logged a net outflow of 3.43 billion U.S. dollars in the month.
