Travel Account Deficit Hits Record High

▽Current Account on the Decrease

The Bank of Korea (BOK) released yesterday a preliminary report on the balance of international payments for July. According to the report, the current account for July recorded 28.8 million dollars in surplus, a 790 million dollars decrease from the previous month. This is mainly because the commodity-account surplus declined and the service account deficit increased last month.

In particular, the travel account recorded 490 million dollars in deficit, the largest figure exceeding 413 million dollars in deficit in July 1997, right before the nation was hit by the economic crisis. The BOK analyzed the reason, saying, "As the vacation season came around, the number of outbound travelers reached 720,000 for the first time in history and the amount of money sent to people studying abroad amounted to 141 million dollars, a 32 million dollar increase from June."

The commodity account for July recorded 930 million dollars in surplus, down by 40 million dollars from the previous month because of imports exceeding exports.”

A senior official of the BOK said, "The travel account deficit tends to rise in August, so the current account for August is likely to turn into the red. But after September, the current account surplus is expected to continue thanks to the decline in the travel account deficit and increase in exports."