South Korea's current account surplus fell in January due to less business days, caused by the Lunar New Year holiday, central bank data showed Thursday.

Current account surplus, the broadest measure of cross-border trade, amounted to 1.01 billion U.S. dollars in January, down from a surplus of 2.29 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It came as the number of working days reduced with the Lunar New Year holiday that moved to January this year from February last year.

Trade surplus for goods declined to 1.92 billion U.S. dollars in January from a surplus of 5.75 billion U.S. dollars a year ago.

Export retreated 12.3 percent over the year to 43.44 billion U.S. dollars in January, while import slipped 5.2 percent to 41.52 billion U.S. dollars.

Services account balance, which measures the flow of travel, transport costs and royalties, logged a deficit of 2.48 billion U.S. dollars in January, down from a deficit of 3.53 billion U.S. dollars a year earlier.

Travel account deficit shed from 1.54 billion U.S. dollars to 1.33 billion U.S. dollars in the cited period.

Primary income account, which includes monthly salary and investment income, recorded a surplus of 1.69 billion U.S. dollars in January, up from a surplus of 1.68 billion U.S. dollars a year ago.