S. Korea Logs Current Surplus for 29th Straight Month

South Korea logged a current account surplus for the 29th consecutive month in July but saw the surplus inch down from the previous month, Korean central bank data showed Thursday.

The current surplus came in at US$7.91 billion last month, compared with $7.92 billion in June, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea. The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade, South Korea's News (Yonhap) reported.

With the July data out, South Korea's current account surplus during the January-July period totaled $47 billion. The central bank's forecast for the year is $84 billion.

The balance of goods came in at $6.86 billion last month, widening from a $6.65 billion surplus in June.

The service account, which includes outlays by South Koreans on overseas trips, logged a deficit for the ninth straight month. Its deficit came in at $7.4 million, sharply narrowing from a deficit of $575 million in the previous month.

The primary income account, which tracks wages of foreign workers and dividend payments overseas, fell to $1.49 billion from $2.23 billion the previous month, according to the data.