Import price drops for 5th month in August

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- Prices for imports in South Korea continued to
decline on an annual basis in August but by a lesser amount than the month
before, the central bank said Tuesday.

In local currency terms, import prices dropped 7 percent last month from a year
earlier, slowing from a 12.9 percent fall in July but marking the fifth straight
month of declines, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The 13.9-percent drop in
May was the largest in nearly 10 years.
Import prices rose 2.1 percent on month in August as oil and other raw material
prices experienced an uptick, the BOK added.
"On-year falls in oil prices in August were smaller that those in July, making
import prices decline at a smaller clip," said Lim Su-young, an official at the
central bank. "The on-month gain in import prices reflected hopes for an economic
recovery."
Raw material prices fell 21.9 percent on-year in August after nose-diving 32.2
percent annually in July, the BOK said.
After peaking at $147 per barrel in July last year, oil prices now hover near
US$70 per barrel. South Korea, the world's fifth-largest crude oil buyer, relies
entirely on imports for its oil needs. The Korean won declined 15.5 percent
against the U.S. dollar on-year in August.
Also Tuesday, the central bank said the country's won-based export prices
declined 1.1 percent from a year earlier in August, compared with a 2.7-percent
fall in July.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
(END)