Korea narrows current account surplus gap with Taiwan amid chip boom

Korea is rapidly narrowing the gap with Taiwan in its current account surplus as a share of gross domestic product, with global investment banks anticipating Korea to potentially overtake Taiwan this year, according to analysts. The Korea Center for International Finance reported that the average forecast from eight foreign investment banks for Korea's current account surplus as a share of GDP rose to 16 percent in August from 14.7 percent in July.

The increase was driven by stronger expectations for semiconductor exports, with Nomura expecting Korea's current account surplus to reach 19.7 percent of GDP, Goldman Sachs projecting 18.7 percent, and Citi citing 18.2 percent. Seven investment banks expect Taiwan's current account surplus to average 20.6 percent of GDP this year.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.