"The Power of Semiconductors" Helps Current Account Set Another Record... BOK Says May Preliminary Figure at $38.61 Billion

The all-time high for the current account was broken again just two months later. Once again, semiconductors drove the increase. The Bank of Korea said that if this trend continues, the current account surplus will exceed both its first-half and full-year forecasts.
According to the Bank of Korea on the 8th, the preliminary current account balance for May 2026 came to $38.61 billion. That surpassed the previous record of $37.93 billion set in March and ranked first all time.
As a result, South Korea's current account surplus has, for the first time ever, stayed above $20 billion for four consecutive months. Excluding April, when large dividend payments were made, the country has set a new monthly record surplus every month since February.
The figure is expected to far exceed the forecast the Bank of Korea issued in May. The cumulative current account surplus for January through May this year stood at $141.28 billion. That leaves only about $10 billion before reaching the first-half forecast of $151.5 billion. Yoo Seong-wook, head of the Financial Statistics Division at the Economic Statistics Department 1 of the Bank of Korea, said, "The current account surplus in June is expected to be around $40 billion," adding, "Not only for the first half, but also for the full year, it could exceed the forecast of $250 billion."
The goods balance, which accounts for the largest share of the current account, reached $37.86 billion. That was 6.1% higher than the previous record of $35.68 billion in March. Exports totaled $94.34 billion, up 4.1% from the previous month and 62.9% from a year earlier. By item, total exports on a customs-cleared basis showed Information Technology (IT) products growing 128.9% year on year, led by computer peripherals and Solid State Drive (SSD) shipments, which rose 249.4%, and semiconductors, which increased 167.7%.
Imports came to $56.48 billion, down from $56.7 billion in the previous month but up 22.2% from a year earlier. The increase was led by raw materials, which rose 22.1%, driven by petroleum products, up 70.5%, and coal, up 37.2%. Capital goods also posted strong growth of 28.0%, including semiconductors at 61.1% and semiconductor manufacturing equipment at 54.9%.
The services balance posted a deficit of $1.09 billion, led by other business services and processing services. Other business services recorded a deficit of $1.11 billion, processing services a deficit of $500 million, and transport a deficit of $440 million. Construction, charges for the use of intellectual property, and travel all increased.
The financial account, which compares overseas investment by residents with domestic investment by foreigners, showed a net increase in assets of $31.08 billion. That was up 22.1% from the previous month and marked the second-highest figure on record after March's $36.99 billion.
Direct investment fell 75.4% from $7.6 billion in the previous month to $1.87 billion. Securities investment, meanwhile, surged more than 6.5 times from $4.71 billion in April to $30.89 billion in May.
[email protected] Kim Tae-il Reporter