SEOUL, July 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea posted a current account surplus in May on the continued trade surplus for goods and the reduced services account deficit, central bank data showed Thursday.
Current account surplus amounted to 4.95 billion U.S. dollars in May, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was the turnaround from a deficit of 660 million dollars in April, the first deficit in seven years.
Trade balance for goods logged a surplus of 5.39 billion dollars in May, but it was the lowest in over five years.
Export, which accounts for about half of the export-driven economy, tumbled 10.8 percent over the year to 48.03 billion dollars in May, while import fell 1 percent to 42.64 billion dollars.
The export fall was attributed to a lower price for semiconductors, of which shipment plunged 29.2 percent in May from a year earlier.
The services account balance recorded a deficit of 900 million dollars in May, the lowest deficit in nearly two and a half years since December 2016.
The number of Chinese tourists to South Korea topped 500,000 in the month for the first time in 27 months, helping reduce the services account deficit.
Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income such as dividend, recorded a surplus of 1.16 billion dollars in May.
Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, logged a net outflow of 4.55 billion dollars in the month.
