We start over at the Bank of Korea... the preliminary balance of payments data for March and the first quarter of this year are out.
And they show the nation's goods account surplus dipped sharply.
Our Kim Hye-sung tells us why.
South Korea's current account surplus for the first quarter of 2019 slumped to a low not seen in roughly seven years.
The Bank of Korea says the current account surplus recorded eleven-point-two-five billion U.S. dollars, the smallest figure since second quarter of 2012,... mainly due to slowing global trade and sluggish chip exports.
Both exports and imports dipped by around eight percent on-year in the first quarter.
The goods exports surplus fell near three billion dollars on-year, narrowing to 19-point-six billion dollars in the first quarter, a five-year low.
This came as chip exports -- that account for a fifth of the country's total exports at around eight percent of GDP -- plunged more than 20 percent.
Petrochemical goods exports also declined five percent.
By region, exports to the U.S. increased but shipments to China, Japan, the EU and the Middle East all fell in the first quarter.
The services account deficit, however, narrowed by one-point-seven billion dollars to seven-point-seven billion dollars thanks to more Chinese and Japanese tourists travelling to Korea.
In the month of March, the current account surplus recorded four-point-eight billion dollars, remaining in the black for the 83rd consecutive month.
But still, both exports and imports fell more than nine percent on-year.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.