SEOUL: South Korea’s current account surplus in November reached $8.99 billion on increased exports and imports, extending its longest-ever surplus streak of 57 months, the central bank data showed. According to preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea (BOK) on Wednesday, the nation’s current account surplus increased to $8.99 billion in November from $8.72 billion in October, keeping up its surplus streak since March 2012. Goods account surplus added by $690 million from the previous month to $10.52 billion.
The country’s export in November increased 7.7 percent from the same period of last year to $46.46 billion, the first on-year increase since June 2014. The outbound shipment of machinery gained 20.8 percent to $5.1 billion while that of steel products and semiconductors rose 12.3 percent and 11.5 percent respectively. “Exports improved from normalization of automaking disruptions due to Hyundai Motor’s lengthy strike and typhoon, and on recovery in prices and demand in memory chips, petrochemicals, and steel,” said Park Jong-yeol from the central bank’s financial statistics department.
The nation’s imports shot up 10.6 percent on year to reach $35.94 billion in November, showing the biggest gain since February 2012 due to the rising crude oil prices and expanding imports of display manufacturing equipments, according to the central bank. The import of machinery rose 10.0 percent from the same month last year to $4.16 billion in November and consumer goods imports such as electronics products and grains expanded 10.9 percent to $5.92 billion.
