SEOUL: South Korea’s export prices continued to slip at a fast rate in November largely due to a sharp cut in raw material prices, the central bank said Friday.
Export prices, in local currency terms, dropped 8.6 percent on-year last month, quickening from a 6.2 percent cut in the previous month, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.
“Export prices in November dropped 1 percent from the previous month due to a cut in prices of home appliances, coal and petroleum products,” the central bank said in a press release. Prices of coal and petroleum products plunged 36.7 percent from a year earlier last month, it added.
In November, the South Korean won traded at 1,148.18 against the U.S. greenback on average, compared with 1,151.97 won per dollar in the previous month. Import prices also continued to drop at a fast clip, plunging 15.6 percent on-year in November. The fall was again attributed to a large cut in global oil prices.
The BOK said the average price of Dubai crude, which accounts for some 80 percent of South Korea’s total oil imports, dropped 9.2 percent from the previous month to $41.61 per barrel in November. From a year earlier, it marks a 46-percent plunge.
