Trade terms gain for an eighth consecutive month

Economy

Trade terms gain for an eighth consecutive month

Korea's terms of trade gained for the eight consecutive month in November as import prices fell at a faster clip than export prices, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods — a gauge of trade terms — came to 98.1 in November, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the eighth straight month of an on-year rise since April, when the trade terms logged the first on-year hike in over two years on low oil prices amid the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figure is calculated by dividing the index for export prices by that for import prices, showing the amount of imports a country can buy for each unit of exports. The base year is 2015, with a benchmark index of 100.

Last month, customs-cleared export prices increased 3.8 percent from the previous year, a turnaround from a 3.5 percent on-year fall. Import prices fell 0.6 percent from a year earlier, extending their losing streak to eight months.

Korea's exports, which account for about 50 percent of the economy, rose 4 percent in November following a 3.8 percent decline in October.

Yonhap