The Bank of Korea said Monday that the provisional estimate of current account surplus in June stood at 12-point-19 billion U.S. dollars, up 41-point-four percent from a month earlier.

The combined current account surplus for the first half of the year was estimated at 52-point-39 billion dollars, up 33 percent from a year earlier. It is the first time the country has posted more than 50 billion dollars within a six-month span.

The central bank, however, said it is still a depression-style surplus, or a surplus caused by a steeper decline of imports than exports.

The BOK said exports dropped two percent in June from a year earlier, while imports plummeted 17-point-three percent during the same time span. Exports from January through June stood at 279 billion dollars, down 10-point-six percent from the same period last year.

Noting declining international oil prices, the BOK forecast the yearly current account surplus will reach 98 billion dollars this year, two billion dollars more than its prediction in April.