SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's current account surplus hit a 9-month high in July on the increased income from investment in overseas securities, central bank data showed Thursday.
Current account surplus reached 6.95 billion U.S. dollars in July, marking the biggest in 9 months since October last year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The trade surplus for goods reduced on the double-digit fall in export, but the current account balance, the broadest measure of cross-border capital flow, posted a bigger surplus on the investment income expansion.
The primary income account, which gauges dividend, interest income as well as salary, logged a record high surplus of 3 billion dollars in July, up from a surplus of 1.54 billion dollars tallied a year earlier.
Among the total, dividend income jumped to 2.89 billion dollars in July from 1.47 billion dollars a year earlier. The interest income touched a new monthly high of 1.9 billion dollars in the month.
The trade surplus for goods tumbled to 6.18 billion dollars in July from 10.79 billion dollars recorded a year ago.
Export declined 10.9 percent over the year to 48.26 billion dollars in the month, continuing to fall for eight straight months. Import slipped 3 percent to 42.08 billion dollars in July.
The services account balance registered a deficit of 1.67 billion dollars in July, down from a deficit of 3.09 billion dollars a year earlier.