South Korea shows a surplus in gold traning for the fifth consecutive year in 2012 with a net capital outflows from gold like currency reserves in the middle of the economic desaceleration.
The gold trade balance was evaluated with a surplus of 1,59 billion dollars . An increase of 1,5 billion dollars from the last year’s result.
The non-monetary gold includes exports and imports of all the gold in the world wich does not hold reserve assets according OCDE.
The data of 2012 accounted for the fifth consecutive year of surplus since 2008, when the net outflow of golg reached $ 31.6 milllion.
The non monetary gold trade is part of the balance of goods. Gold exports represented 0,55 per cent of total exports of goods in South Korea in 2012, the BOK said.
Markets observers said the surplus was attributed mainly to the investor appetite for gold. It increased in the middle of the global financial crisis of 2008. The surplus indicated that South Korea exported gold products abroad after reprocessing imported gold, observers said.
The data showed that with a exception of 1998 and 2006, the non monetary gold trading registered deficit until the 2007.
South Korea recorded a trade surplus valued at a record 2.38 billion dollars in 1998, when the country was in the midst of the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. Then, the South Koreans lined up to sell their gold rings in a national campaign to help rescue his country, wich could recover from a severe shortage of foreign reserves.
In contrast, the Bank of Korea has increased since 2010 its gold holdings to diversify its foreign exchange reserves. Wich stood at 327.4 billion dollars at the end of February.
The central bank bought 20 tonnes of gold last month, increasing its gold holdings to 104.4 tonnes, worth 4,79 billion dollars.
