South Korea - Current Account Balance

For South Korea, the Balance of Payments statistics are published by the Central Bank of Korea (BOK) on a monthly basis and are disseminated according to the IMF's sixth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual standard (BPM6) in time series format. The BOK provides bilateral balance of payment statistics, for both current account and capital and financial account, and seasonally adjusted current account statistics. Quarterly from 1980. 

The international investment position is a balance sheet showing the stock of external financial assets and liabilities. Its components are identical to those of the BOP financial account.

External debt encompasses total contractual debts effectively disbursed and not yet paid, owed by residents of an economy to non-residents, in which there is an obligation to pay principal and/or interest at some point(s) in the future.

Balance of payments

Active:

• Framework: IMF BPM6
• Measurement: Millions of U.S. dollars (Mil. USD)
• Adjustments:
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start date: As early as 1980m1

Predecessors:

• 1980 to 2014 ("_14")
• 1980 to 2010 ("10")
• 1980 to 2009 ("09")
• 1980 to 2008 ("08")

International investment position

• Framework: IMF BPM6
• Measurement: Millions of U.S. dollars (Mil. USD)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start date: Uniformly 1994Q4

BOP concepts and definitions are broadly consistent with the recommendations of the IMF BPM6 framework. In particular,

• Current, capital, and financial accounts of the balance of payments statement are defined according to the guidelines of the BPM6, and the current account balance is equal (with sign reversed) to the net capital and financial account balance.
• In constructing the balance of payments statement, a double-entry system is applied as a basic principle, and the net residual is embedded in the errors and omissions item.
• A clear distinction is made between the income component and the goods and services components.
• The financial account provides for a separate recording of transactions in assets and transactions in liabilities.
• The directional principle is applied in recording foreign direct investment.

The data are split up in four main headings:

• Current account: goods and services, income and current transfers;
• Capital and financial accounts: capital transfers and other (that includes information of the acquisition/disposal of nonproduced nonfinancial assets) in the capital account; and direct investment, portfolio investment, financial derivatives, and other investment in the financial account;
• Change in reserve assets; and
• Net errors and omissions.

Further reading

At IMF (SDDS):

• Balance of payments (Jan 2023 / Mar 2023)
• International investment position (Jan 2023 / Mar 2023)

• Sep 2005 - Initial version.
• 12 Jan 2024, Phillip Thorne - Addendum of IIP.
• 19 Jan 2024, Phillip Thorne - Addendum of direct investment components.