S Korea's current account posts $6.41 bln deficit in 2008

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Chinese media) -- South Korea's current

account deficit amounted to 6.41 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, which was the

first annual current account shortfall since 1997, the country's central bank

said Friday.

In 2007, South Korea's current account posted a

surplus of 5.88 billion U.S. dollars, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.

According to the BOK, the goods balance posted a

surplus of 5.99 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, sharply down from the surplus of

28.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2007. The BOK attributed the decrease of good

balance surplus to soaring oil and other raw material prices.

Customs-cleared exports in 2008 grew to 422 billion

U.S. dollars, up 13.6 percent from a year ago, while imports increased 22

percent to 435.3 billion U.S. dollars, it said.

The shortfall of the service account amounted to 16.7

billion U.S. dollars, slightly down from 19.8 billion U.S. dollars deficit a

year ago, it said.

The income account logged a surplus of 5.11 billion

U.S. dollars last year, up from 1 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year, it

said.

The capital account, on the other hand, posted a net

outflow of 50.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, sharply down from a net inflow of

7.13 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, it said.

The BOK added that the capital account swung to the

shortfall for the first time since it logged a net outflow of 3.39 billion U.S.

dollars in 2001.

The central bank said earlier that the country's

current account for 2009 was expected to swing into the black at around 22

billion U.S. dollars.