South Korea posted a current account surplus of $5.18 billion in March, the Bank of Korea said on Friday – up from $3.96 billion in February.
The goods account surplus widened to $9.88 billion, compared to $9.36 billion a year earlier.
The services account deficit narrowed to $2.25 billion, from $3.11 billion in March last year, led by improvements in the travel and the transport accounts.
The primary income account deficit widened from $0.52 billion the year earlier to $1.58 billion in March 2018, in line with an increase in the payments on equity account.
The secondary income account showed a $0.87 billion deficit.
In the financial account, there was a $4.22 billion increase in net assets in March and a $12.55 billion expansion in net assets for the first quarter of the year as a whole.
Direct investment assets grew by $2.80 billion, and direct investment liabilities by $1.28 billion.
There was a $5.82 billion increase in portfolio investment assets during the month, and a $5.62 billion increase in portfolio investment liabilities.
Financial derivatives posted a net contraction of $1.46 billion.
In terms of other investment, there was an expansion of $0.70 billion in assets and a decline of $2.08 billion in liabilities.
Reserve assets increased by $1.19 billion.
For the first quarter of 2018, the current account surplus was $11.83 billion.
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