S.Korea logs current account surplus for 15 months in July

SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Xinhua/APP):South Korea logged current account surplus for 15 straight months amid the continued recovery in global demand, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The current account surplus reached 8.21 billion U.S. dollars in July, up 1.19 billion dollars from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The current account balance, the broadest measure of cross-border trade, has stayed in black for 15 months since May last year.
Trade surplus for goods amounted to 5.73 billion dollars in the month as export surged 26.3 percent over the year to 54.31 billion dollars in July. Import jumped 35.0 percent to 48.58 billion dollars.

Services account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport cost and royalty, posted a deficit of 80 million dollars in July, down from a deficit of 1.3 billion dollars recorded a year earlier.
The transport account surplus hit a new monthly high of 1.59 billion dollars in July, keeping a record-breaking trend for the third consecutive month.

Travel account deficit amounted to 490 million dollars in July, up from a deficit of 330 million dollars a year earlier.
People avoided going on an overseas trip amid the lingering worry about the COVID-19 pandemic across the world.
The primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, recorded a surplus of 2.8 billion in July, up 1.12 billion dollars from a year earlier.

The dividend income account registered a surplus of 2.06 billion dollars in July from 800 million dollars a year ago.
Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, logged a net outflow of 6.56 billion dollars in July.

Overseas direct investment by local residents expanded 3.49 billion dollars, while foreign direct investment (FDI) in South Korea gained 2.95 billion dollars.

For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond transactions, overseas investment by domestic residents increased 4.67 billion dollars in the month. Foreign investment in local stocks and bonds jumped 8.1 billion dollars.