South Korea’s current account surplus has dwindled, as services accounts including travel accounts dipped to a record low in the first quarter amid China’s continuing retaliation over the THAAD deployment.
 
The Bank of Korea(BOK) said on Thursday that the nation’s current account surplus was tallied at five-point-93 billion dollars in March, extending the already record long current account surplus to 61 straight months since March 2012.
 
However, the size of the current account surplus shrank by two-point-47 billion dollars from February.
 
Surplus in balances on goods dropped by 750 million dollars to nine-point-eight billion dollars in March. Exports stood at 50-point-38 billion dollars, up 12-point-eight percent from the same month a year earlier, while imports jumped 27-point-five billion dollars to 40-point-58 billion dollars.
 
An official of the BOK said the significant rise in imports was led by the imports of petroleum products amid rising international oil prices.
 
Deficit in balances on services also widened to three-point-27 billion dollars in March, more than triple the level a year earlier.
 
In total, the services balances deficit in the first quarter amounted to eight-point-86 billion dollars, the largest quarterly services deficit on record.
 
The deficit in transportation, amid the lingering slump in the shipping industry, stood at 620 million dollars, a record high monthly figure.
 
Deficit in travel account also enlarged to one-point-35 billion dollars, affected by the falling number of Chinese tourists as well as growing overseas travel by South Koreans.
 
It is the highest travel deficit since a one-point-47 billion dollar deficit posted in July of 2015 in the aftermath of the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS).