In one of the clearest indications yet of how the turbulent global trade conditions are affecting South Korea,... new figures show the country's export AND import prices dropped sharply last month.<br />Kim Ji-yeon reports. <br />According to the Bank of Korea on Thursday,... the country's import prices fell for the first time since August, mainly due to a drop in international crude oil prices.<br />Import prices decreased by four-point-six percent on-month... the steepest drop since January 2015.<br />Dubai crude, Korea's benchmark, slumped more than 17-percent compared to the previous month to around 65 U.S. dollars a barrel in November.<br />It affected prices of raw materials... which dropped by more than nine-percent compared to the previous month.<br />Meanwhile, export prices fell for the first time since March.<br />They dipped by more than two-percent in November compared to the previous month... the steepest drop since April 2016.<br />The appreciation of the local currency contributed to the drop in export prices. <br />It was trading at an average of one-thousand-128 won against the greenback,... a zero-point-two-percent drop from a month earlier.<br />Prices of coal and petrochemical products dropped by more than two-percent on-month... while agriculture, forestry and fisheries prices fell by one-percent.<br />In particular, the price of Korea's main export, DRAMs dropped by two-percent from the previous month... the fourth straight month of decline.<br />According to market researcher DRAMeXchange, the average price of the modules fell for the first time in two years in Q4... to 30-U.S. dollars in November.<br />Kim Ji-yeon, Arirang News. <br />
