Korean government's stepping up efforts to recycle its current account surplus

Korea's October current account surplus reduced to USD 9 bn, in line with the expectations. This small surplus was mainly because of lesser goods surplus, which caused slight decline in primary income surplus and deficit in services.

The October services deficit account increased again to USD 2bn, caused primarily due to larger deficit in the intellectual property account and travel.

"We continue to believe that the government's efforts to push out the current account surplus are working. Indeed, the financial and capital account (excluding reserves) recorded a cumulative deficit of USD80.9bn, of which 64% (USD52.1bn) was registered for the five months between June and October", says Barclays in a research note.