South Korea logged a trade surplus for 57 straight months in October as imports fell at a faster pace than exports, customs data showed Tuesday.

The country's trade surplus came to $6.97 billion last month, up 5.7 percent from $6.59 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service.

For the January-October period, the surplus edged up 2.2 percent on-year to $74.7 billion from $73.1 billion.

The on-year gain in trade surplus was led by a steep decline in imports that outpaced a fall in exports in October.

Exports fell 3.2 percent on-year to $42 billion last month, while imports retreated 4.8 percent to $35 billion.

Asia's fourth-largest economy has posted negative growth in its outbound shipments for 21 months in the recent 22 months since January last year amid contracted demand at home and abroad.

Its exports made a turnaround in August for the first time in 20 months but relapsed into negative terrain in the following month due to a sharp drop in cars and mobile phones stemming from partial strikes at major carmakers including industry leader Hyundai Motor Co. and the production halt of Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy Note 7. (Yonhap)