2021.05.0623:23:00UTC+00South Korea March Current Account Surplus $7.82 Billion

South Korea posted a current account surplus of $7.82 billion in March, the Bank of Korea said in Friday's preliminary reading.

That was down from the downwardly revised $7.94 billion surplus in February (originally $8.03 billion).

The goods account surplus increased to $7.92 billion, compared to the $6.96 billion figure in March 2020. The services account deficit fell to $0.9 billion, from $1.65 billion in March last year, owing to an improvement in the transport account.

The primary income account surplus increased from $0.85 billion last year to $1.28 billion in March 2021, in line with an increase in the income on equity.

The secondary income account saw a $0.48 billion deficit.

In the financial account, net assets increased by $10.0 billion during March.

Direct investment assets increased by $4.22 billion, and direct investment liabilities increased by $1.97 billion.

There was a $6.43 billion increase in portfolio investment assets during the month, and a $7.27 billion increase in portfolio investment liabilities.

Financial derivatives posted a net increase of $0.26 billion.

In other investments, there was an increase of $5.16 billion in assets and a decrease of $1.98 billion in liabilities.

Reserve assets increased by $1.18 billion.

For the first quarter of 2021, the current account surplus was $22.82 billion - up from $12.93 billion in the first quarter of last year.