AlQa'dah 1, 1432, Sep 29, 2011, SPA -- South Korea's trade surplus sunk to its lowest level in seven months in August, amid weaker overall exports during the holiday season, dpa quoted the central bank as saying Thursday. The surplus stood at 480 million dollars last month, compared to a revised 3.77 billion dollars for July, the Bank of Korea said. But the current account, the broadest measure of international trade, has been in the black for 18 straight months since March last year. The August figure was the lowest since January, when a surplus of 154.7 million dollars was registered. "The goods account surplus contracted sharply to 0.48 billion dollars from July's 4.73 billion dollars due to seasonal factors such as summer holidays," a statement of the bank read. Exports fell 5.69 per cent month-on-month to 45.8 billion dollars in August, while imports grew 3.4 per cent to 45.3 billion dollars. The relative drop in exports from July was also due to that month's order books being inflated as companies brought exports forward ahead of the summer vacation, the bank said. The services account deficit narrowed to 577.9 million dollars, compared with a shortfall of 690.9 million dollars in July, owing mostly to higher travel earnings. The cumulative surplus was 12.3 billion dollars for the first eight months of the year.
