SEOUL: South Korea's seasonally adjusted current account surplus rose slightly in July from June but imports grew for a third consecutive month, central bank data showed on Thursday, a sign of improving domestic demand.
Asia's fourth-largest economy posted a current account surplus of $6.74 billion in July in seasonally adjusted terms, up from a revised $6.32 billion surplus in June, Bank of Korea data showed.
The goods-account surplus slid in July from June as imports fared better than exports, but a rise in the service-account surplus more than offset it.
Exports edged down by a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent whereas imports grew 0.4 percent.
"We're seeing some activity in spending and the real estate market, although it's still early to say that domestic demand is on a full recovery," said Stephen Lee, economist at Samsung Securities.
Imports grew for a third consecutive month in July, the longest gaining run since late 2009. Authorities have been pushing hard to stimulate domestic demand by offering stimulus spending plans, easing mortgage curbs and cutting interest rates in recent weeks as the economy weakened in the second quarter.
South Korea's current account has been in surplus each month for the past three years thanks to the strong showing by exporters such as Samsung Electronics while weak global energy prices helped contain total import costs.
South Korea's current account surplus for the January-July period rose to $47.10 billion without adjustment for seasonal patterns from a $39.25 billion surplus for the comparable period of 2013.
This has kept upward pressure on the won and Thursday's data will likely reinforce the rising trend. It has gained 1.3 percent against the dollar so far this month and was trading near six-year highs.
The Bank of Korea expects the current account surplus to amount to $84 billion for the whole of this year, which would be around 6 percent of the country's annual gross domestic product, compared with an $80 billion surplus in 2013.
In the financial account, the country saw a net outflow of $5.92 billion in July without adjustment for seasonal patterns, compared to a net outflow of $9.84 billion in June.
Comments
Comments are closed.