South Korea's trade terms slightly improve on-year in August

South Korea's terms of trade improved in August from a year earlier, but at a slower pace than in July on the rising trend of oil costs, the central bank said Thursday. The country's net terms-of-trade index for goods -- a gauge of trade terms -- came in at 90.4 in August, up 1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The August figure was slightly slowed from July when the country's trade terms hit the 27-month high of 90.9, up 1.5 percent from the previous year. The index is calculated by dividing the export price index by the import price index. The base year is 2010 with a benchmark index of 100. The BOK said that import prices declined at a faster clip than export costs, making Korea's net terms-of-trade index for goods improve from the previous year. Korea's income terms-of-trade index, another gauge of trade terms, reached 112.8 in August, up 9.1 percent from the previous year, according to the BOK. The index measures how much can be imported with the total export value.