SEOUL, May 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea posted a current account surplus for the third straight month in April thanks to a surplus in the goods balance, the central bank said Thursday.

    According to a report by the Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea's current account marked a surplus of 4.28 billion U.S. dollars in April, down from a record high of 6.65 billion U.S. dollars in March.

    The current account has stayed in positive territory since February as a decline in imports led to an improvement in trade conditions.

    The goods balance logged a 6.17 billion-U.S. dollar surplus in April, down from a 6.98 billion-U.S. dollar surplus a month earlier due to a decline in imports.

    The deficit in the service account increased to 1.11 billion U.S. dollars from 645.7 million U.S. dollars a month before mainly due to an expanded spending on overseas trips.

    The income account stood in negative territory with an 856 million U.S.-dollar deficit, four-times the deficit marked a month earlier, 215.7 billion U.S. dollars.

    The capital account registered a net inflow of 2.54 billion U.S. dollars last month, while it showed a net outflow of 2.71 billion U.S. dollars in March as the country went through a large amount of overseas debt sales.

    As of end-April, South Korea's current account surplus stood at 12.86 billion U.S. dollars for the first four months of 2009, the BOK added.

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