SEOUL, March 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's trade deficit of intellectual property rights posted a record low last year on strong sales of locally-made computer and mobile games, central bank data showed Thursday.

Trade balance in intellectual property rights logged a deficit of 720 million U.S. dollars in 2018, down from a deficit of 1.69 billion dollars in the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It was the lowest since the bank began compiling the data in 2010 as export of the locally-produced computer and mobile games increased.

Intellectual property rights export rose 1.25 billion dollars over the year to 13.52 billion dollars in 2018, while import of intellectual property rights grew 0.28 billion dollars to 14.24 billion dollars.

Trade surplus in research and development (R&D) and software copyrights logged a fresh record high of 1.75 billion dollars last year on computer and mobile game sales.

Trade balance in trademark and franchise rights turned into a surplus of 230 million dollars in 2018 from a deficit of 790 million dollars in the previous year on increased export of franchise rights by game companies.

By industry, manufacturers posted a deficit of 1.21 billion dollars in the intellectual property rights trade balance in 2018, up from a deficit of 1.19 billion dollars a year earlier.

The trade balance among services companies turned into a surplus of 530 million dollars in 2018 from a deficit of 540 million dollars in the prior year. Enditem

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