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| ▲ In this file photo, containers for export are stacked at a pier in South Korea's largest port city of Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on May 10, 2023. (Yonhap) |
trade terms-May tally
Trade terms continue to fall in May on faster export price fall
SEOUL, June 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's terms of trade worsened for the 26th straight month in May as export prices fell faster than import prices, central bank data showed Wednesday.
The country's net terms-of-trade index for goods fell 2.8 percent last month from a year earlier, following a 0.4 percent dip the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.
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.
May's decline stemmed from a faster price fall in exports relative to import prices.
Export prices sank 14.4 percent on-year in May, while import prices declined 11.9 percent over the same period, the data showed.
South Korea's exports fell for the eighth consecutive month in May due mainly to weak demand for semiconductors amid an economic slowdown.
Outbound shipments decreased 15.2 percent on-year to US$52.24 billion last month, as exports of semiconductors, the country's key export item, sank 36.2 percent on falling demand and a drop in chip prices.
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