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In March, the current account balance turned black again for the first time in three months.

However, semiconductors, which are the core of our exports, are still sluggish, and reporter Kim Kwan-jin pointed out when they will improve.

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March this year, the current account balance recorded a surplus of $3 million.

After posting consecutive deficits in January and February, it turned into a surplus for the first time in three months.

However, the balance of goods bought and sold was in the red for the sixth consecutive month.

In particular, the export volume of semiconductors, a key export item, decreased by 3% from a year ago.

The sluggish semiconductor exports are due to a decline in global demand, and Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have already cut production.

The strategy is to raise the price of memory semiconductors by reducing supply, but the effect of production cuts has not yet been felt.

Despite production cuts by domestic companies, the price of memory semiconductors is expected to fall by up to 2% more than in the first quarter by the second quarter.

There is a lag between large inventory cuts leading to higher prices, and demand has hardly recovered as the economic slowdown drags on.

[Yang Fang Kim/Researcher, Korea Industrial Research Institute: In the end, the effect will only come if the inventory is sufficiently reduced, but as of now, the inventory does not decrease noticeably because the demand is still sluggish, so the effect of production cuts is not noticeable....]

Therefore, the Korea Development Institute warned that the global semiconductor economy will bottom out before September, but the market recovery may be slower than expected.

Sluggish exports across domestic manufacturing, including semiconductors, could also affect the job market.

The number of manufacturing jobs last month fell by 7,1 from a year ago, the biggest decline in two years and four months.

(Video editing by Park Ki-duk)