S Korea logs current account surplus for 9th month in Oct.

South Korea posted a current account surplus for the ninth straight month in October as exports gained ground, weathering the global slowdown and the local currency’s gain, the central bank said Wednesday. The current account surplus reached US$5.82 billion in October, down from a revised $5.91 billion in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade, according to South Korea’s (Yonhap) News Agency. In the first 10 months of this year, the cumulative current account surplus reached $34.13 billion, surpassing the central bank’s 2012 surplus estimate of $34 billion. The BOK said that the country is expected to see a considerable amount of the surplus for November. “The surplus trend is likely to go on for November on the back of growing exports of petrochemical goods and telecommunications products,” Yang Jae-ryong, the director of the BOK’s monetary and financial statistics division, said at a press conference. Despite the slowing economic growth, the local currency has appreciated more than 6% to the dollar so far this year as foreign capital is flowing into Korea amid quantitative easing by major economies. Meanwhile, the capital and financial account, covering cross-border investments, posted a net outflow of $7.27 billion last month, larger than a net outflow of a revised $4.93 billion the previous month, the central bank said. The account of stock and bond investment logged a net outflow of $4.66 billion last month, the largest net outflow since $7.03 billion in July 2008.