South Korea-Japan trade drops for third straight year

Trade between South Korea and Japan fell for the third straight year in 2014.
The Korea International Trade Association announced on Wednesday that the trade volume between the two countries in 2014 shrank nine-point-two percent from a year ago to amount to roughly 85-point-nine billion U.S. dollars, according to Korea's (KBS WORLD) website.
South Korea and Japan saw trade volume of around ten billion dollars in January and February, down 14 percent from the same period last year.
The association blamed the decline on the decreased competitiveness of South Korean exports to Japan due to a drop in the value of the yen.
They also said overall sluggish domestic demand, resulting in decreased Japanese imports, contributed to the weakened trade volume.