Seoul, January 10 (QNA) – South Korea posted the first current account deficit in three months in November of US $620 million, swinging back from a surplus of $880 million a month earlier, as exports sharply dwindled amid growing worries over a global economic recession.
It marked the first deficit in three months and also represented a setback compared with the same month a year earlier when the country logged a surplus of $6.82 billion.
During the January-November period, the country’s cumulative current account surplus stood at $24.37 billion, sharply down from a surplus of $82.24 billion tallied in the same period a year before, data from the Bank of Korea (BOK) showed.
The deficit came as exports dwindled amid growing worries over a recession prompted by aggressive monetary tightening in major countries and stringent coronavirus curbs in China, one of the country’s largest markets.
South Korea exported $52.32 billion worth of goods and services in November, down 12.3 percent from a year earlier. Semiconductor sales, among other things, fell 28.6 percent on-year in November, customs-cleared data showed.
By destination, exports shipped to China plunged 25.5 percent on-year in November as Beijing’s strict antivirus curbs hampered access to the world’s most populous market.
Imports, meanwhile, inched up 0.6 percent on-year to $53.88 billion in the month. This caused the goods balance to post a deficit of $1.57 billion in November, the second straight shortfall in the area. It also swung back from a surplus of $6.07 billion a year earlier. (QNA)
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