South Korea’s terms of trade worsened last month on expensive crude oil, central bank data showed yesterday, reports Xinhua from Seoul.

The net terms-of-trade index for goods shrank 5.3 per cent in May from a year earlier, after sliding 5 per cent in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It was the biggest fall since April 2012. The index measures the amount of imports that can be made with proceeds of a unit export.

Import prices moved up on expensive crude oil. Global oil pries surged 46.7 per cent in May from a year ago.

The import value index jumped 13.5 per cent on higher crude oil price, while the import volume index gained 2.7 percent.