South Korea's trade balance posted a surplus of 2.33 billion U.S. dollars last month as reducing exports were offset by falling imports, a government report showed Sunday.

Trade surplus reached 2.33 billion dollars in March, up from a revised surplus of 1.52 billion dollars tallied in the previous month, according to the report by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. For the first three months of this year, the surplus amounted to 1.62 billion dollars.

Exports, which account for more than half of the economy, contracted 1.4 percent on-year to 47.36 billion dollars last month, while imports shrank 1.2 percent to 45.03 billion dollars.

The exports recovered its growth trend in February after recording the first decline in 27 months in January, but it again marked the on-year contraction in March. The nation's exports expanded 20.6 percent on-year in February, with the import growth reaching 23.3 percent.

The ministry said the March export growth turned to minus due to high base effect, saying that South Korea's exports temporarily jumped last March due to supply disruption in Japan last year following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The negative growth was also attributed to continued reduction in exports to Europe and a sharp drop in outbound shipments of ships and telecommunication devices, according to the report.

Exports of telecommunication devices shrank 32 percent on-year in March, with overseas shipments of ships and liquid crystal display (LCD) panels contracting 27.6 percent and 7.5 percent respectively. Demand for locally-made chips and petrochemical products also decreased over the same period.

Auto exports, however, expanded 35.1 percent on-month in March, shoring up the export-driven economy's growth momentum, while shipments of petroleum products and general machinery grew 7.6 percent and 3.3 percent each.

By region, exports to the United States jumped 27.9 percent on- year to 5.94 billion dollars in March following the implementation of the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). The ministry said that export growth to the U.S. market was focused on synthetic resins, general machinery and auto parts as those sectors benefitted from the FTA implementation that improved price competitiveness arising from tariff reduction.

In contrast, shipments to the European Union (EU) member nations plunged 20.3 percent in March from a year earlier due to the lingering fiscal crisis, and exports to China grew at a slow pace of 0.7 percent over the cited period.

Meanwhile, imports fell last month due to weaker demand for energy amid higher raw material prices. Crude oil imports grew 4.5 percent on-year to 8.87 billion dollars in March, but the import volume contracted to 73.2 million barrels last month from 80.1 million barrels a year before amid rising import prices that jumped to 121.2 U.S. dollars a barrel last month from 106 dollars per barrel the previous year.

Imports of petroleum products jumped 23.6 percent in March from the previous year, with inbound shipments of natural gas and coal growing 19.5 percent and 1.7 percent respectively.

Inbound shipments of capital goods decreased 4.2 percent on- year in March, but imports of consumer goods advanced 1.9 percent over the same period.