South Korea’s current account surplus widened in February from the previous month as imports declined faster than exports, and a deficit of the service account narrowed, the central bank said Thursday.

The current account surplus reached $2.71 billion in February, up from a revised $2.33 billion the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The current account is the broadest measure of cross-border trade.

The February gain was the largest since November, marking the 13th straight month of a surplus run.

The BOK said that Korea would see the underlying trend of the surplus continue for March on exports of tech products although foreigners’ repatriation of dividend gains would sap the income account balance.

“The March surplus may be similar to the February gain,” Cho Yong-seung, the director of the BOK’s monetary and financial statistics division, said in a press conference.

In March and April, offshore investors usually repatriate dividend payments by Korean companies that close their books in December, crimping the country’s income account balance. (Yonhap News)