Roundup: S.Korea posts current account surplus for 36 months

South Korea kept a current account surplus trend for 36 straight months as imports reduced at a faster pace than exports, fueling concerns over the so-called recession type of surplus, central bank data showed Thursday.

Current account surplus, the broadest measure of cross-border trade and fund flow, was 6.44 billion U.S. dollars in February, up 41.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea ( BOK). Compared with the previous month, the surplus slid 2.1 percent.

The current account balance stayed in the black for 36 months in a row since March 2012, raising possibility for surpassing the longest surplus trend of 38 months from June 1986.

The BOK set its 2015 outlook for current account surplus at a record high of 94 billion dollars. The 2014 surplus was 89.2 billion dollars.

Exports, which account for about half of the economy, sank 15.4 percent from a year earlier to 40.6 billion dollars in February, and imports tumbled 21.9 percent to 33.27 billion dollars.

It was the first time since September 2009 that both exports and imports fell dramatically. During the month, the exports and imports plunged 17.3 percent and 22.8 percent respectively.

Lower crude oil prices contributed to faster fall in imports than exports. Cheaper oil pulled down export prices of oil and petrochemical products and reduced import prices of raw materials.

Weak demand for capital and consumer goods imported from overseas also contributed to the steeper decline in imports, boosting worries about the recession-driven current account surplus.

Trade surplus for goods expanded from 6.69 billion dollars in January to 7.32 billion dollars in February amid the rapid fall in imports.

The service account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, posted a deficit of 2.06 billion dollars in February, down from a 2.38-billion-dollar deficit in January. The reduced deficit was due to improved travel account balance.

Surplus in primary income account, which includes monthly salaries and investment income, narrowed from 2.9 billion dollars in January to 1.4 billion dollars in February on the back of a fall in dividend income.

Financial account, which gauges cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, logged an outflow of 5. 54 billion dollars in February, down from an outflow of 8.24 billion dollars in January.

Direct investment registered an outflow of 1.99 billion dollars in February, up from an outflow of 1 billion dollars in the previous month.

Portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond transactions, recorded an outflow of 3 billion dollars in February, down from an outflow of 3.62 billion dollars in January.

Other investment account, including trade credit and foreign debts, posted an outflow of 370 million dollars in February, turning from an inflow of 490 million dollars in January. Endi