South Korea Posts a Record $61.46 Billion Current Account Surplus as Chip Exports Jump 260%

Photo: Niels Johannes, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (file photo, 2006). A container terminal at the Port of Busan.

South Korea’s current account surplus reached a record $61.46 billion in September, the first month on record above $60 billion, as semiconductor exports rose 260.3% from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said on Thursday, Nov. 5. The figure was up from $46.11 billion in August and $14.22 billion in September 2025. It beat the previous monthly record of $49.73 billion, set in June, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The current account is the broadest measure of a country’s trade with the rest of the world. It covers goods, services, investment income and transfers. South Korea has run a surplus every month since May 2023, Yonhap said.

By the numbers: a year of records

The surplus for the first nine months of 2026 totaled $340.66 billion, more than four times the $83.89 billion in the same period last year. The third quarter alone produced $149.65 billion. That is already more than the $123.05 billion surplus for all of 2025, which was itself a record for a full year.

Monthly surpluses have set several new highs this year. February ($23.19 billion), March ($37.93 billion) and May ($38.61 billion) were each records at the time, before June’s $49.73 billion and now September’s figure. September’s total also reflects quarter-end effects, according to Kim Young-hwan, a director general at the Bank of Korea, quoted by Yonhap Infomax.

Chips drove the goods surplus

The goods account, which tracks trade in physical products, posted a record surplus of $62.75 billion. Exports measured on a balance-of-payments basis rose 92.4% from a year earlier to $130.72 billion, while imports rose 29.4% to $67.97 billion. Exports have topped $100 billion for four months in a row, Aju Press reported.

Customs data cited by the central bank showed exports of information technology products up 195.8%. Within that group, semiconductors rose 260.3% and computer peripherals, mainly solid-state drives, jumped 392.3%, Chosun Biz reported. Non-IT exports rose 13.4%, led by a 73.3% gain in petroleum products. Passenger car exports fell 5.6%.

The demand comes largely from artificial intelligence data centers, which need large amounts of memory chips. TBR has covered how that demand lifted Samsung’s record third-quarter profit and pushed South Korea’s October exports higher. The two measures are different: customs export data counts goods as they clear customs, while the balance-of-payments figures in this story follow ownership changes.

Services and income

The other parts of the current account were much smaller. The services account deficit widened to $3.35 billion from $1.68 billion in August, as South Koreans spent more on travel abroad and on payments for intellectual property. The primary income account, which includes dividends and interest, posted a $2.65 billion surplus, helped by higher dividend income. The secondary income account, which covers transfers such as aid and remittances, showed a $590 million deficit.

Foreign investors sold Korean stocks

Money flowed the other way in the stock market. Foreign investors sold a net $13.74 billion of Korean stocks in September, about 29 times the $470 million they sold in August, mostly in large chip companies, Aju Press reported, citing the central bank. South Korean residents increased their overseas securities holdings by $16.63 billion, including a record $6.72 billion in foreign bonds.

The financial account, which tracks cross-border investment, showed a record $54.34 billion rise in net assets, above the previous high of $46.71 billion in June.

What comes next

The Bank of Korea expects the surplus for all of 2026 to exceed its forecast of $450 billion. A bank official told Yonhap that October’s surplus is likely to be the second-highest on record. “We expect another record high in December given year-end seasonal effects,” the official said. Kim also said annual exports on a customs basis could pass $1 trillion this year, possibly as early as November, Yonhap Infomax reported. These are forecasts, not results.

On the same day, Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il met Bank of Korea Gov. Shin Hyun-song and the country’s two top financial regulators to discuss possible changes in U.S. policy after this week’s U.S. elections. They noted that semiconductor shares had fallen on concerns about tighter regulation of the AI industry, Yonhap reported. The officials agreed to watch U.S. trade, tariff, fiscal and industrial policy and the war in the Middle East, and to prepare for “a possible increase in financial market volatility,” the finance ministry said. TBR has also reported on Seoul’s record 820 trillion won budget plan for chips, AI and defense. More regional coverage is in TBR’s Asia-Pacific news section.

Sources

• Yonhap: S. Korea posts record high current account surplus of over $60 billion in September
• Aju Press: September current account surplus and foreign stock selling
• Chosun Biz: September balance of payments
• Yonhap Infomax: Bank of Korea briefing on September balance of payments
• Yonhap: Financial policymakers to monitor U.S. AI, trade policies following election

Additional sources

• KDI Economic Information Center: Bank of Korea, September 2026 balance of payments (preliminary, Korean)
• Korea JoongAng Daily: Financial policymakers to monitor U.S. policies
• Yonhap: earlier 2026 monthly current account data
• Korea JoongAng Daily: August current account surplus