S. Korea posts current account surplus for 44 months

South Korea posted current account surplus for 44 months in a row as imports fell at a faster pace than exports, central bank data showed Wednesday.

Current account surplus reached 8.96 billion U.S. dollars in October, keeping a surplus trend for 44 months since March 2012, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the longest surplus in the country's history.

The October figure was down from the previous month's 10.54 billion dollars, but was up 0.22 billion dollars from a year earlier.

Despite the long-running surplus, concerns remained over the South Korean economy as the surplus came from a faster fall in imports than exports that is called a "recession-type" surplus.

Exports, which account for about half of the export-driven economy, dipped 7 percent from a year earlier to 47.44 billion dollars in October. Imports tumbled 14.7 percent to 36.7 billion dollars.

Sluggish imports indicate a reduction in corporate investment and faltering private consumption, which may lead to the weakening of corporate competitiveness in the long term.

Trade surplus for goods came in at 10.74 billion dollars in October, down from 12.04 billion dollars in September. Enditem