Terms of trade index falls for 27th straight month

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Terms of trade index falls for 27th straight month

Korea’s trade terms continued to deteriorate last month, with its export prices falling at a faster rate than import prices, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The terms of trade index for products came to 89.06 in February, down 5.8 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data.

The index measures the amount of imports a country can purchase for each unit of exports.

“The terms of trade index for products dropped 5.8 percent from the same month last year in February as export prices dropped by a greater margin than import prices,” the bank said in a press release.

Korea’s export prices plunged 7.2 percent on-year in the month, while import prices slipped 1.4 percent.

The trade terms index has dipped for 27 consecutive months since December 2017.

Despite a steady decline in terms of trade, the country’s exports increased, both in terms of volume and value, for the first time in 15 months.

Exports dropped for 14 consecutive months before gaining 4.5 percent on-year to $41.2 billion in February.

The bank said the export volume index spiked 11.4 percent on-year in the month, with the export price index also adding 3.4 percent.

The indices for import volume and price added 1.5 percent and 0.1 percent on-year, respectively.

Yonhap
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