SEOUL, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea logged current account surplus for the third straight month due to a double-digit export growth, central bank data showed Friday.

Current account balance, the broadest measure of cross-border trade, recorded a surplus of 9.13 billion U.S. dollars in July, after posting surpluses of 8.92 billion dollars in May and 12.56 billion dollars in June, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

For the first seven months of this year, the current account surplus stood at 47.17 billion dollars, sharply up from a surplus of 5.26 billion dollars tallied in the same period of last year.

Trade surplus for goods came to 8.49 billion dollars in July, down from 11.74 billion dollars in the prior month. The trade balance stayed in black for the 16th consecutive month since April last year.

Export jumped 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 58.63 billion dollars in July, while import rose 9.4 percent to 50.14 billion dollars.

The outbound shipment kept an upward trend for the 10th successive month due to solid demand for locally-made semiconductors, mobile devices, oil products, and machinery.

Service account deficit amounted to 2.38 billion dollars in July, up from a deficit of 1.6 billion dollars in June.

It was attributed to the widened travel account deficit as a higher number of South Koreans went abroad for travel in summer vacation season.

Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, registered a surplus of 3.15 billion dollars on higher overseas dividend income.

Dividend income account posted a surplus of 2.79 billion dollars in July, up from a surplus of 2.34 billion dollars in the previous month.

Financial account, which measures cross-border capital flow without transactions in goods and services, recorded a net outflow of 11.03 billion dollars in the cited month.

Overseas direct investment by domestic residents climbed by 4.33 billion dollars, while foreign direct investment in South Korea gained by 2.99 billion dollars.

For the portfolio investment, which includes stock and bond trading, overseas investment by local residents soared by 10.11 billion dollars, while foreign investment in local stocks and bonds grew by 3.92 billion dollars. Enditem

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