Outlook for C/A balance this year

The nation`s current account balance recorded a US$1.46 billion surplus in June, bringing the total surplus for the January-June period to US$4.4 billion.

The Bank of Korea therefore forecast that the current account surplus would reach its revised target for this year, surpassing US$9 billion.

The BOK released the tentative report on the payment-balance trends for June on July 27, and announced that the current account surplus for the month posted a decline of US$0.12 billion from the month before to US$1.46 billion. This put the nation well in the black with the surplus exceeding US$1 billion for two months in a row.

The strong payment-balance trend in June was largely attributable to significant growth in the goods account surplus, which saw a gain of US$0.33 billion from the month before to US$2.28 billion, bolstered by brisk exports of heavy and chemical products.

As a result, the accumulated surplus of the current account balance for this year`s first half totaled US$4.4 billion. This figure is equivalent to a mere third of that for the first half of 1999 (US$12.2 billion). The BOK explained that the slower growth trend was primarily due to soaring import costs following hikes in international oil and raw material prices.