SEOUL, KOREA – Korea’s terms of trade have gone downhill for two consecutive years. Meanwhile, the exports of major IT products like smartphones and semiconductors have picked up.
Korea's net terms-of-trade index for goods held at 87.0 in 2012, down 2.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The index is defined as the percentage ratio of the export price index to the import price index, measured relative to the base year 2010 (100).
The worsening trade terms came as export prices fell at a higher pace than import costs, the BOK explained.
But the BOK said that despite such setbacks in export prices, Korea's export volume increased last year. The index measuring export volume grew 5.6 percent from a year earlier in 2012, propped up by IT products like semiconductors and display devices. In addition, the index measuring export volume for January 2013 jumped 16.1% year-on-year as growth in the exports of communications, video and audio devices offset a pullback in the exports of textiles and leather goods.
From this year, the BOK will unveil data on trade terms on a monthly basis instead of a quarterly basis.
Sean Chung (hbpark@etnews.com)
**Article provided by etnews [Korea IT News]
[Reference] : http://english.etnews.com/electronics/2715655_1303.html
