South Korea current account surplus inches down in July

SEOUL: South Korea registered a nearly $8.0 billion dollar current account surplus in July but saw the figure slip marginally from the previous month, the central bank said.

The current account, the broadest measure of foreign trade in goods and services, showed a surplus of $7.91 billion compared to $7.92 billion the previous month and down from $7.99 billion a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said.

With the July figure, the surplus for Asia's fourth-largest economy in the first seven months of the year totalled $47 billion, up 20 percent from the same period of last year.

The central bank forecasts South Korea will post a record current account surplus of $84 billion this year.