SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea logged current account surplus for 18 straight months in October owing to the continued recovery in global demand from the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Tuesday.
Current account balance, the broadest measure of cross-border trade, reached a surplus of 6.95 billion U.S. dollars in October, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
It was down 4.61 billion dollars from a year earlier, but the current account balance hovered in black for 18 months since May last year.
For the first 10 months of this year, the current account surplus amounted to 77.07 billion dollars amid the continued global demand recovery from the pandemic.
Trade surplus for goods slumped 4.53 billion dollars over the week to 5.64 billion dollars in October due to faster growth in import than export.
Export advanced 20.1 percent to 55.97 billion dollars in the month, while import surged 38.2 percent to 50.33 billion dollars.
Services account balance, which gauges the flow of travel, transport cost and royalty, posted a surplus of 630 million dollars in October, turning around from a deficit of 830 million dollars a year earlier.
The transport account surplus hit a record monthly high of 2.22 billion dollars in October, sharply up from a surplus of 480 million dollars a year ago.
Travel account balance logged a deficit of 450 million dollars in October, up from a deficit of 400 million dollars in the same month of last year.
Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, came in at a surplus of 670 million dollars in October, down from a surplus of 2.5 billion dollars a year ago.
The dividend income account turned red with a deficit of 30 million dollars in October from a surplus of 1.57 billion dollars in October last year.
Financial account, which measures cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, recorded a net outflow of 7.01 billion dollars in the cited month.
Overseas direct investment by local residents grew by 7.72 billion dollars in October, while foreign direct investment in South Korea increased by 3 billion dollars.
For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond transactions, overseas investment by domestic residents rose by 940 million dollars.
Foreign investment in local stocks and bonds gained by 3.92 billion dollars in October from a year earlier. Enditem