Korea reports current account surplus in September

Korea swung to a current account surplus in September from the previous month’s deficit.

Containers are being unloaded at a port in Busan on Nov. 1. [YONHAP]

Korea swung to a current account surplus in September from the previous month’s deficit.

The country's current account surplus came to $1.61 billion in September, compared with a deficit of a revised $3.05 billion a month earlier, which marked the first shortfall since April, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.

September's surplus was much smaller than a year earlier when the corresponding figure stood at $10.51 billion.

During the January-September period, the country logged a cumulative current account surplus of $24.14 billion, a sharp decline from a surplus of $67.41 billion tallied a year earlier, the data showed.

“The decline in deficit is commonly shown in countries with high reliance of energy imports, including Japan and Germany,” said Hwang Sang-pil, head of the Bank of Korea’s economic statistics bureau, in a press conference held in central Seoul on Tuesday.

He added, the state of “volatility will continue for some time being due to a high level of external uncertainties.”

Korea's economy is in the midst of high inflation, rising import prices for raw materials, aggressive monetary tightening and the growing worries over a global economic recession.

Adding to the woes are the prolonged strict antivirus restrictions and lockdowns in China that have been undercutting demand for goods in the largest market for Korea's exporters.

Korea exported $57.09 billion of exports in September, down 0.7 percent from a year earlier, though it slightly rose from the previous month's $57.28 billion. Shipments to China shrank 6.5 percent on-year to $13.37 billion in September, the data showed.

Imports jumped 18 percent on-year to $56.59 billion in September. The amount dwindled from the previous month's $61.73 billion.

The on-year rise in imports came mostly from higher energy and raw material prices driven up by the ongoing war in Ukraine and more demand from the global economic reopening after the pandemic. The central bank said that crude oil imports surged 57.4 percent on-year in September.

The goods balance, which tracks exports and imports, logged a surplus of $490 million in September, a turnaround from the previous month's deficit of $4.45 billion. However, it was much smaller than the previous year's surplus of $9.55 billion.

The service account, which includes outlays by Koreans on overseas trips and transport earnings, remained in the red as outbound travel increased following eased pandemic curbs. The deficit in the service account came to $340 million in September, compared with a deficit of $770 million the previous month.

The primary income account, which tracks wages of foreign workers and dividend payments overseas, logged a surplus of $1.84 billion in September, down from the previous month's surplus of $2.24 billion, according to the data.

BY JIN MIN-JI, YONHAP [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]