South Korea posted a current account surplus for the 55th straight month in September but suffered a decline from a year earlier due to sluggish outbound shipments, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The current account surplus reached $8.26 billion in September, compared with a $10.84 billion surplus a year earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.

But the September figure marks a rise from $5.28 billion in August. The current account is the biggest measure of cross-border trade.

It said the service balance widened its deficit to $2.54 billion in September from $1.45 billion a month earlier.

In the primary income account, the country posted a surplus of $830 million in September, up from $610 million in the previous month.

Exports fell 2.4 percent on-year to $44.01 billion in September, while imports gained 0.1 percent to $33.25 billion. (Yonhap)