After posting its first deficit in seven years in April mainly due to a seasonal surge in dividend payouts,... South Korea's current account was back in the black in May.<br />Our Kim Da-mi reports.<br />South Korea's current account surplus amounted to 4-point-95 billion U.S. dollars in May.<br />That's a turnaround from the six-hundred-60 million dollar deficit posted the month before amid sluggish exports.<br />The BOK attributed the turnaround to a smaller services account deficit and the absence of the seasonal surge in dividend payouts that affected April's figures.<br />It's not all good news though,...as the surplus for May is just forty-one percent of what it had been 12 months earlier.<br />In addition,... despite the turnaround from April, the goods account surplus in May hit its lowest level in 5 years at 5-point-4 billion dollars.<br />The agency pointed to a fall in exports on slowing global demand and falling chip prices.<br />The country's bread and butter semiconductor exports dropped 30 percent on-year in May.<br />That's the biggest drop since March 2009, 10 years ago.<br />Imports decreased slightly by one percent during the same period due to weak energy prices as well as less machinery imports.<br />The services account deficit narrowed the most since 2017,... thanks to more Chinese visitors to the country and fewer Koreans traveling overseas.<br />The current account surplus from January to May this year totaled 15-point-5 billion dollars,... far below the central bank's goal of 25 billion dollars.<br />Kim Da-mi, Arirang News.<br />
