SEOUL, KOREA - The June trade balance recorded a surplus of US$6 billion, continuing the march of 17 consecutive months of surplus. According to a report "June 2013 Export-Import Trend" published by the Korea Customs Service on July 14, the export amount in June was $46.71 billion, down 1 percent from the same month a year ago. Month-on-month, it was down 3.4 percent.

 

As for imports, the June volume was $40.72 billion, 3 percent lower than the year before. As a result, the trade balance for the month was a surplus of $5,994 million.

 

For the whole six months in the first half, the total trade volume (the figure combining export and import figures) was $53.32 billion, with a trade surplus of $20.0 billion. Although the trade volume declined 1.1 percent from the same period last year, the surplus rose 84.1 percent from last year's $10.9 billion.

 

The first-half exports were $27.66 billion, up 0.6 percent from the same period in 2012 while the imports for the same period fell 2.8 percent year on year.