Anchor: South Korea's current account surplus hit a record high in September on strong exports. The surplus has continued for 67 months in a row.
Our Park Jong-hong has the details.
 
Report: South Korea's current account surplus reached 12-point-21 billion dollars in September, topping the previous record of 12-point-09 billion dollars tallied in June last year.
  
The figure was a sharp rise compared with a surplus of eight billion dollars a year earlier. 
 
The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.
 
The cumulative current account surplus for the first nine months of the year also hit a record 93-point-38 billion dollars, according to preliminary data by the Bank of Korea(BOK) on Friday.
 
Breaking down the numbers, the BOK said the goods account surplus widened to a record 15-point-01 billion dollars in September on strong chip exports.
 
On the other hand, the services account deficit widened to two-point-nine billion dollars from a deficit of about two-point-six billion dollars a year earlier largely due to an increase in overseas trips and a decline in manufacturing.
 
Another noteworthy trend was the widened travel account deficit owing to a sharp drop in Chinese tourists to South Korea. The number of Chinese tourists that visited South Korea fell by more than 56 percent triggered by the row over South Korea’s deployment of the U.S. THAAD antimissile defense system.
 
But experts predict the figures will improve down the road as South Korea and China agreed earlier this week to put their bilateral relations back on track.
Park Jong-hong, KBS World Radio News.