Seoul, Sep 15 (IANS/WAM) South Korea logged a trade surplus for the 19th straight month in August thanks to improving export figures, customs data showed Sunday.
The country's exports came to $46.38 billion last month, up 7.7 percent from the same period a year earlier. Its imports grew 1 percent year-on-year to $41.53 billion, the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, reported quoting Korea Customs Service data.
As a result, the country logged $4.85 billion in trade surplus in August, marking the 19th straight month of surplus since February last year. During the January-August period, its cumulative trade surplus came to $27.4 billion.
Exports of passenger vehicles, in particular, jumped 47.8 percent year-on-year in August, with those of ships and semiconductors also growing 23.8 percent and 21.7 percent, respectively. Exports of oil and steel products, however, dropped 6.4 percent and 3.7 percent.
Exports bound for Australia, the US and China grew 22.9 percent, 17.9 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively.
But those shipped to Japan and the European Union shrank 13.3 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, according to the data.
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--IANS/WAM
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