South Korea extended its current account surplus to 30 months in a row in August but by a smaller margin than the previous month, central bank data showed Monday. The current account surplus reached $7.27 billion last month, compared with a revised $7.84 billion in July, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea. The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.

With the August data, the country's current account surplus during the January-August period totaled $54.31 billion. The central bank's forecast for the year is $84 billion.

The balance of goods came in at $7.44 billion in August, widening from a $6.79 billion surplus the previous month.

The service account, which includes outlays by South Koreans on overseas trips, logged a deficit for the 10th consecutive month.

The deficit came in at $732.6 million.

The primary income account, which tracks wages of foreign workers and dividend payments overseas, slipped to $1.05 billion from $1.49 billion a month earlier, according to the data.

 (khnews@heraldcorp.com)