Friday, August 23rd, 2013
Lee Hyun-young, the central bank manager responsible for trade statistics, said, "The trend toward improvement is continuing but the degree of improvement is lowering, largely because of a rise in international oil prices."
The net terms-of-trade index is calculated by dividing export prices by import prices. Setting the ratio in 2010 at 100, an index of 90.9 means that Korean importers were able to purchase 90.9 units of goods with the money from selling 100 units of export goods.
As for the income terms-of-trade index, which measures how much can be imported with money earned through exports, it was 114.3, rising 3.8 percent in June from a year ago after increasing 16.1 and 4.0 percent in May and June.