International Trade
The Bank of Korea announced on June 29 that Korea’s tentative current account surplus reached US$7.12 billion in April. The balance of current accounts had turned from a deficit of US$2.41 billion to a surplus of US$3.81 billion in March 2012, and the surplus has continued for 26 months in a row.
The size of the surplus declined by US$170 million (2.2 percent) from a month ago but rose by US$2.57 billion (56.5 percent) year-on-year to set a new monthly high. The cumulative current account surplus amounted to US$29.44 billion during the four months of this year, which is equivalent to 43.2 percent of the current account surplus for this year estimated by the Bank of Korea.
The goods account surplus increased from US$7.97 billion to US$10.65 billion between March and April. The exports rose by 10.0 percent from a year earlier to US$56.72 billion while the imports fell 0.9 percent to US$46.07 billion.
“The goods account surplus showed an upward movement thanks to the increase in the export of automobiles, steel products and the like amid the economic recovery in the United States and Europe,” said Roh Choong-shik at the Economic Statistics Department of the central bank.
In the meantime, the services account deficit totaled US$1.04 billion, US$390 million higher than that of the preceding month, due to the deterioration of the balance on the transportation side.