SEOUL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- South Korea posted trade surplus for 88 straight months to May despite the export fall, customs office data showed Monday.
Trade surplus amounted to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in May, staying in the surplus for 88 months since February 2012, according to the Korea Customs Service.
The revised figure for export, which accounts for about half of the economy, declined 9.5 percent from a year earlier to 45.9 billion dollars in May, while import shed 1.8 percent to 43.6 billion dollars.
The outbound shipment continued to fall since December last year on the global economic slump and the downturn in business cycle of the global semiconductor industry.
Chip export tumbled 29.2 percent, with those for oil product and auto parts skidding last month.
Exports for automobiles, ships and consumer electronics logged a double-digit increase, limiting the export's further reduction.
Exports to the United States and Japan gained last month, but the shipment to China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, shrank 20.1 percent.
Those to the European Union (EU) and the Middle East reduced by a double-digit last month.