South Korea's current account deficit amounted to US$6.41 billion in 2008, which was the first annual current account shortfall since 1997, the country's central bank said on Friday.

In 2007, South Korea's current account posted a surplus of US$5.88 billion, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.

According to the BOK, the goods balance posted a surplus of US$5.99 billion in 2008, sharply down from the surplus of US$28.2 billion in 2007. The BOK attributed the decrease of good balance surplus to soaring oil and other raw material prices.

Customs-cleared exports in 2008 grew to US$422 billion, up 13.6 percent from a year ago, while imports increased 22 percent to US$435.3 billion, it said.

The shortfall of the service account amounted to US$16.7 billion, slightly down from US$19.8 billion deficit a year ago, it said.

The income account logged a surplus of US$5.11 billion last year, up from US$1 billion in the previous year, it said.

The capital account, on the other hand, posted a net outflow of US$50.9 billion in 2008, sharply down from a net inflow of US$7.13 billion in 2007, it said.

The BOK added that the capital account swung to the shortfall for the first time since it logged a net outflow of US$3.39 billion in 2001.

The central bank said earlier that the country's current account for 2009 was expected to swing into the black at around US$22 billion.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2009)