South Korea attained its third-largest trade surplus in March and extended the surplus streak to 50 months, as imports again fell at a faster pace than exports, customs data showed Friday.

The country's trade surplus came to $9.86 billion last month, up from a surplus of $7.07 in the previous month, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.


The March figure marked the 50th consecutive month of a trade surplus, with an 18.6-percent on-year jump from $8.34 billion a year earlier.

It is also the third-largest monthly trade surplus, following $10.2 billion tallied in November last year and $9.96 billion in June last year.

The increase was largely attributed to a cut in imports that outpaced a drop in exports.

Exports fell 8.1 percent on-year to $43 billion last month, while imports tumbled 13.9 percent to $33.2 billion.

Due mainly to waning demand from emerging countries and a slowdown in China, the country's exports have fallen every single month since the start of 2015, but the downward pace of exports have decelerated since January.

Outbound shipments nosedived nearly 19 percent in January, but the rate of decline narrowed to 13.1 percent in February and 8.1 percent in March on the back of rising demand for Korean mobile phones and chips.

On the imports side, inbound shipments have also seen negative growth for 18 months in a row because of low oil prices.

South Korea's imports of crude oil plunged 43 percent on-year to $2.66 billion despite a 3.7-percent gain in the sheer volume of imports to 85 million barrels, according to the customs agency. (Yonhap)