The tally marks the 80th consecutive month of the balance being in the black based on a revised statistics criteria, but it represents the smallest monthly surplus since April when it hit a six-year low of $1.77 billion.

The goods account surplus declined to $6.53 billion in December from $7.92 billion a year earlier due to a drop in exports amid slowing demand for semiconductors.

Exports brought about a 10-month low of $49.57 billion in surplus in December, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier.

The services account deficit narrowed to a two-year low of $1.95 billion from a deficit of $3.71 billion a year earlier as the number of foreign arrivals jumped 16.8 percent on-year to 1.32 million in December.

In particular, the number of Chinese visitors rose 25.2 percent on-year to 416,000, while that of the Japanese soared 33.5 percent to 259,000. The number of departures edged up 3.8 percent to 2.5 million.

For the whole of 2018, the current account surplus reached $76.41 billion, up $1.18 billion from a year ago.

The goods account marked $111.87 billion in the black last year, down slightly from $113.59 billion tallied in 2017. A surplus of $625.44 billion was from exports.

The deficit in the services account narrowed to $29.74 billion in 2018 from the previous year's $36.73 billion. (Yonhap)