Trade terms worsen for 21st straight month in Dec.

SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's terms of trade worsened for the 21st straight month in December as export prices fell at a faster pace than import prices, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods came to 83.36 in December, down 4.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.

From a month earlier, the index also fell 0.7 percent.

For all of 2022, the index decreased 8.1 percent from the previous year.

The index is calculated by dividing the index for export prices by that for import prices. It shows the amount of imports a country can buy for each unit of exports, with a lower figure meaning worse trade terms.

In December, export prices fell 6.2 percent on-year, while import prices declined 1.4 percent over the same period, the data showed.

kokobj@yna.co.kr
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