SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea posted trade surplus for 91 straight months to August despite the continued fall in export, customs office data showed Monday.
The trade balance reached a surplus of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars in August, staying in the black for 91 straight months since February 2012, according to the Korea Customs Service.
Export, which accounts for about half of the economy, declined 13.8 percent over the year to 44.1 billion U.S. dollars in August, while import shrank 4.2 percent to 42.4 billion dollars.
The outbound shipment continued to slide for the ninth consecutive month through August.
Exports for semiconductors and oil products tumbled 30.7 percent and 15.2 percent each last month, but those for electronic products and telecommunication devices, such as smartphone, logged a double-digit increase.
Shipment to Vietnam expanded last month, but those to China, the United States and the European Union (EU) all reduced in the month.
During the January-August period, the trade surplus amounted to 22.8 billion dollars, nearly half of the figure tallied in the same period of last year.
