SEOUL, May 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's current account surplus in the first quarter of 2019 hit the lowest in 27 quarters on weak export, caused by lower chip price, central bank data showed Wednesday.
Current account surplus amounted to 11.25 billion U.S. dollars during the January-March quarter, the lowest since the second quarter of 2012, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
It was attributable to an export reduction, which led to a lower trade surplus for goods.
The trade surplus for goods stood at 19.61 billion dollars in the first quarter, the lowest since the first quarter of 2014.
Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, dipped 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 137.5 billion dollars in the March quarter. It was the first quarterly fall of export in two and a half years.
Import retreated 7.6 percent to 117.89 billion dollars in the cited period.
In March alone, the current account surplus was 4.82 billion dollars, staying in the black for 83 months in a row. It was down from a surplus of 5.1 billion dollars tallied a year earlier.
