South Korea’s current account surplus hit a six-month high last month thanks to lower spending on overseas travel and a fall in dividend payouts to foreign investors, the central bank said yesterday.
The surplus was US$3.83 billion last month compared with US$1.42 billion the previous month. It was the largest surplus since US$4.28 billion in November last year, the Bank of Korea said.
“Heightened geopolitical risks and the eurozone debt crisis weakened the local currency last month, prompting people to spend less on overseas trips,” Yonhap news agency quoted a central bank official as saying. “The income account swung to a surplus on the back of a cut in dividend payments for offshore investors.”
The current account surplus — the broadest measure of cross-border trade — could prop up the won, which has lost about 3 percent to the US dollar this year due to the EU debt crisis and heightened tensions with North Korea.
The goods balance posted a surplus of US$4.18 billion last month compared with a US$5.12 billion surplus the previous month. Exports rose 38.9 percent year-on-year to US$38.7 billion while imports jumped 50.2 percent to US$34.6 billion.
The income account, which records wages for foreign workers and dividend payments overseas, saw a surplus of US$298.3 million compared with a deficit of US$1.38 billion the previous month, as dividend payouts for foreign investors fell sharply.
The deficit in the service account, which includes spending by South Koreans on overseas trips, was US$642.7 million last month, down from a US$1.85 billion deficit in April.
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