South Korea posted an unadjusted current account surplus of $7.35 billion in March, the Bank of Korea said on Tuesday - remaining in the black for the 25th consecutive month.

The headline figure is up from the $4.52 billion surplus on February and the $3.61 billion surplus in January.

The financial account recorded a net outflow of 5.78 billion dollars, down from 6.92 billion dollars the previous month.

The goods account surplus widened to $8.04 billion, from $5.40 billion the previous month, due to favorable exports of products such as information and communication equipment, passenger cars and semiconductors, the bank said.

The services account deficit narrowed to $0.65 billion from $1.06 billion one month earlier, despite a worsening of the other business account deficit, as the travel and transport account improved.

The primary income account surplus registered $0.32 billion, similar to February's level.

The secondary income account saw a deficit of $0.36 billion.

Direct investment posted a net outflow of $2.02 billion, down slightly from the net outflow of $2.16 billion the previous month, as foreign direct investment shifted to a net inflow.

Portfolio investment saw a net outflow of 2.01 billion dollars, sharply lower than the $7.39 billion in February, due to a shift to net inflows of foreign investors' debt securities investment, the bank said.

Financial derivatives posted a net inflow of $0.51 billion.

Other investment shifted to a net outflow of $0.47 billion, from a net inflow of $4.74 billion the previous month, owing largely to decreased borrowings by domestic financial institutions.

Reserve assets increased by $1.79 billion.

Seasonally adjusted, the current account surplus was $6.65 billion - down from $7.57 billion in February.

For the first quarter, the current account surplus was $15.13 billion.

RTTNews