South Korea posted a record deficit in its travel account in July amid China’s continuous retaliation against the deployment of the THAAD antimissile system and as the number of South Koreans who went on overseas trips saw a new high.
 
According to the Bank of Korea on Tuesday, the nation’s travel account deficit reached nearly one-point-eight billion dollars in July. The figure is a new high and broke the previous record of one-point-seven billion dollars posted in July of 2008.
 
The new high came as the number of South Koreans who traveled abroad grew 14-and-a-half percent year-on-year in July to stand at a record two-point-39 million.
 
Meanwhile, the number of people who entered South Korea slipped nearly 41 percent to roughly one million. The number of Chinese that entered the nation plunged more than 69 percent to 281-thousand.
 
As a result, the service account deficit for July reached roughly three-point-three billion dollars, or the second highest after the nearly three-point-four billion dollars posted in January of this year.
 
However, the central bank was quick to add that the nation posted a current account surplus of some seven-point-three billion dollars in July. It marked a record 65 consecutive months of current account surplus. The cumulative figure for the first seven months of this year stood at 43-and-a-half billion dollars.