South Korea’s terms of trade posted the first on-year decline in 14 months in January as export prices fell at a faster pace than import prices, the central bank said Monday.
The country’s net terms-of-trade index for goods ― a gauge of trade terms ― came in at 88.4 in January, down 0.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.
It marked the first on-year decline since a 0.4 percent fall in November 2012.
The figure is calculated by dividing the index for export prices by that for import prices. The base year is 2010 with a benchmark index of 100.
The BOK said that the fall in trade terms mainly came as export prices fell at a faster clip than import prices.
Korea’s income terms-of-trade index, another gauge of trade terms, reached 109.93 in January, up 1.1 percent from a year earlier with the increase in exports volume, the BOK added.
The index measures how much can be imported with the total export value. (Yonhap)
