3월 경상수지 51억8000만달러…73개월 연속 흑자

Seoul's central bank released its prelimary data on the country's balance of payments for March.
It showed the service account deficit shrunk... as more Chinese tourists visited Korea.
Kim Hyesung breaks down the digits for us.
South Korea's travel account deficit shrunk to its lowest level since April last year.
According to the Bank of Korea Friday, the travel account deficit narrowed to one-point-31 billion U.S. dollars in March thanks to a boost in Chinese visitors, which marked its turnaround with an on-year increase for the first time in about 13 months.
The number of Chinese visitors in March went up nearly 12 percent on-year to over 400-thousand visitors.
Boosted by the increase in Chinese tourists, the number of foreigners visiting Korea went up over 10 percent on-year, and 30 percent on-month, to 1-point-36 million people in March.
Thanks to the falling travel account deficit, the services account deficit fell below 2-point-3 billion dollars, the lowest since May last year.
Korea's central bank said the increasing number of visitors was boosted by lower geopolitical risks following the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, as well as improving relations between Seoul and Beijing.
The number of Chinese visitors to the country fell sharply last year due to China's travel ban over the U.S. THAAD deployment in South Korea.
The current account balance logged a surplus of 5.2 billion dollars in March, down from 5.7 billion dollars a year ago, but still posting a surplus for 73 months in a row.
The Bank attributed the reduced surplus to a sharp increase in dividend payments to foreign investors of 2.8 billion dollars last month.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.