According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) According to the Bank of Korea on February 18, the personal, cultural and leisure services sector posted a surplus of USD 47.5 million (KRW 50 billion) in 2014.

This is the largest surplus since Korea began collecting figures for personal, cultural and leisure services in 1980, as well as the third, the first having been in 2001 (USD 19.8 million) and the second in 2002 (USD 42.4 million).

The surplus is mainly due to increased exports of Korean Wave-related cultural products, including K-pop and dramas.

The income generated by the personal, cultural and leisure services sector amounted to USD 954.8 million (KRW 1.56 trillion) in 2014, a 30.6 percent increase year-on-year.

The cultural industry of Korea, which earned its first income from foreign markets in 1997 (USD 4.4 million), has been breaking records since 2006 (USD 228 million).

In this regard, the income for personal, cultural and leisure services in 2014 increased 18.5-fold from 2004 (USD 51.5 million).

The exact figures have not been determined for the Korean Wave-related international balance of payments.

This is because a cultural product can be categorized into different sectors depending on how it is exported. For example, if a movie is exported as a CD, it will be regarded as a product export. However, if it is exported online, it will be considered a services balance.

evan@yna.co.kr

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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (February 17, 2015)

** This article was translated from the Korean.