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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