South Korea posted a current account surplus for the ninth straight month in October as exports gained ground, weathering the global slowdown and the local currency’s gain, the central bank said Wednesday.

The current account surplus reached $5.82 billion in October, down from a revised $5.91 billion in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.

In the first 10 months of this year, the cumulative current account surplus reached $34.13 billion, surpassing the central bank’s 2012 surplus estimate of $34 billion.

The BOK said that the country is expected to see a considerable amount of the surplus for November.

“The surplus trend is likely to go on for November on the back of growing exports of petrochemical goods and telecommunications products,” Yang Jae-ryong, the director of the BOK’s monetary and financial statistics division, said at a press conference.

Despite the slowing economic growth, the local currency has appreciated more than 6 percent to the dollar so far this year as foreign capital is flowing into Korea amid quantitative easing by major economies. (Yonhap News)