Current account on semiconductors and mobile phones...dwindling surplus

Ship Export Growth Transition...Car exports fall for second month

Chemical, Machinery and Steel Exports Still 'Broken'

Imports rise for second straight month, current account surplus narrows

[Anchor]
The current account continued to remain in the black for the fourth month as exports rose for the 11th straight month.

However, exports are too concentrated on IT items such as semiconductors and mobile phones, so the surplus is shrinking.

Reporter Ryu Hwan-hong reports.

[Reporter]
The current account surplus was $6.6 billion in August, according to the Bank of Korea.

Although the current account has been in the black for the fourth month since May, it continued to shrink in July and August after peaking at $12.6 billion in June.

Exports have increased for 11 consecutive months, bolstering the current account surplus, but by item, the contrast is mixed.

Exports of electrical and electronic products increased due to increased exports of semiconductors and mobile phones, but exports of most items, except for IT such as passenger cars and chemical products, decreased.

[Song Jae-chang / Director of Financial Statistics, Bank of Korea: Despite the solid growth of IT items, the growth of non-IT items slowed down a bit]

Ship exports, which plunged in July, fortunately turned to a sharp increase in August, but passenger cars showed two consecutive months of decline in July and August.

Chemical products, machinery, and steel products are also not getting out of the swamp of sluggish exports due to falling demand and falling unit prices due to intensifying competition.

[Moon Hye-jeong / Head of the balance of payments team: In the case of steel, export unit prices have fallen a lot due to intensifying global price competition. Then, in the case of machinery and precision equipment, exports fell in August due to a slight slowdown in the global construction industry.]

The current account surplus shrank for the second month in a row as imports rose amid sluggish exports of most items except IT.

The Bank of Korea predicted that the size of the current account surplus is likely to shrink in the second half of the year as imports are expected to continue to grow on the back of increased facility investment and recovery in consumption.

I'm YTN's Ryu Hwan Hong.


Video editing: Eunkyung Lee
Design: Byul Lim