SEOUL, March 14 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's surplus in goods trade with the United States posted a double-digit fall in 2018, keeping a downward momentum for the third consecutive year, a government report showed on Thursday.

The country's goods trade surplus toward the United States was 13.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, down 22.9 percent from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Export to the United States grew 6 percent to 72.7 billion U.S. dollars on demand for locally-made chip, oil product and construction equipment.

Import from the United States jumped 16.2 percent to 58.9 billion U.S. dollars on the sharp growth in imports of crude oil and natural gas, which marked a triple-digit expansion last year.

South Korea's surplus in goods trade with the United States continued to rise for the first four years since the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) came into force in March 2012, but it turned downward in 2016.

Meanwhile, South Korea's deficit in services trade with the United States was 16.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, up from a deficit of 14 billion U.S. dollars in 2016. The services figure is unveiled a year later than the goods trade number.

The Asian country's services export to the United States was almost unchanged at 14.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, but the services import increased 10.3 percent to 31.3 billion U.S. dollars on demand for U.S. law and accounting services.