[한은 미리보기]Will the current account surplus march in December continue with’semiconductor propaganda’?

Photo = Yonhap News

[이데일리 이윤화 기자] Next week, the Bank of Korea will announce the current account, etc., showing how much money Korea made from exports in December of last year. In spite of Corona 19, major export items such as semiconductors are showing strong performance, and as the surplus has continued for 7 months since May last year, it is noteworthy whether the surplus march will continue in December.

On the 5th of next month, the BOK releases the “December 2020 balance sheet (tentative)”. The current account recorded a surplus of more than 10 billion dollars for two consecutive months in September (1.210 billion dollars) and October (11.6 billion dollars) last year, and in November, it recorded a surplus of 8.97 billion dollars. From January to November 2020, the cumulative current account surplus was 69.4 billion dollars, exceeding the current account surplus in 2019 alone (59.9 billion dollars).

On the 3rd,’the amount of foreign exchange reserves at the end of January 2021′ is announced. Korea’s foreign exchange reserves were $431.3 billion as of December, an increase of $6.72 billion from the end of the previous month, a record high for the seventh month. Foreign exchange reserves are expected to increase in January as well, due to the increase in the translation amount of foreign currency assets denominated in other currencies due to the weakening of the US dollar and the operating income of foreign currency assets.

Weekly press plan

△Monday, February 1

12:00 The effect of the spread of Corona 19 and social distancing on wage and income distribution (BOK Issue Note)

△2nd Tuesday

The first minutes of 2021 (held on January 15) are released

△3 days (Wed)

12:00 Performance of impaired currency disposal and exchange in 2020

06:00 Foreign exchange reserves at the end of January 2021

△4th (Thursday)

12:00 Legal issues related to central bank digital currency (CBDC) and direction for revision

△5th (Fri)

08:00 International balance sheet for December 2020 (provisional)