SEOUL, June 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's current account surplus with the United States hit a six-year low last year amid the rising import of the U.S. crude oil and shale gas, central bank data showed Friday.
The country's current account surplus with the United States was 24.71 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the lowest since 2012, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was down from a surplus of 24.97 billion U.S. dollars in the prior year.
Helped by the upturn in the business cycle of the global semiconductor industry, the export to the United States posted a new yearly high of 99.27 billion U.S. dollars last year.
The import from the United States grew faster than export amid surging demand for the U.S. crude oil and shale gas, the BOK data showed.
South Korea's surplus for goods trade with the United States came to 36.02 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the lowest in six years.
The deficit in services trade with the world's biggest economy diminished to 13.37 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 from 16.34 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier.
The current account surplus with China, South Korea's biggest trading partner, expanded from 40.11 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 to 49.13 billion U.S. dollars in the following year.
The trade surplus for goods increased from 38.33 billion U.S. dollars to 46.03 billion U.S. dollars in the cited period on rising demand for locally-made chips and oil products, while the services account balance posted a surplus of 1.29 billion U.S. dollars amid the rising number of Chinese tourists to South Korea.
South Korea's current account balance with Japan registered a deficit of 24.29 billion U.S. dollars last year, down from a deficit of 28.74 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year.
The current account deficit with the European Union (EU) shrank from 10.89 billion U.S. dollars to 10.78 billion U.S. dollars in the same period.
With Southeast Asian countries, South Korea recorded a current account surplus of 93.48 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, up 17.43 billion U.S. dollars from a year earlier.
