South Korea’s current account surplus in July hit a 16 month high on record-high ship exports, the central bank said Friday.

According to the Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea’s current account posted a surplus of US$5.88B in July, compared with a revised US$5.1B surplus a month ago.

The July figure stood at the highest level since the nation saw a surplus of US$6.64B in March 2009.

South Korea’s current account stood in positive territory for the 6th month running, with a combined surplus of US$17.6B for the 1st 7months of this year.

The sharp gain owes much to strong exports, with goods balance posting a record surplus of US$7.38B, up from US$6. 41B a month ago.

The service account, however, marked a deficit of US$1.66B, similar to June’s US$1.67B deficit, mostly due to an increase in South Koreans’ overseas trips.

While the capital account posted a net outflow amounting to US$47.3B, the portfolio investment account marked an US$8.63B net inflow during the cited period, the BOK said.

For the whole year, the BOK predicted the current account surplus to top around US$21B, revising up its earlier projection of US$10.5B on strong exports.

Thanks to brisk trade conditions, the South Korean economy grew 7.6% in 1-Half of Y 2010 from a year earlier.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnew.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Aug 27th, 2010and filed underAsia, Latest News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site