South Korea's terms of trade rose for the ninth consecutive month in December as export prices increased at a faster pace than import prices, central bank data showed Thursday.

The nation's net terms-of-trade index for goods -- a gauge of trade terms -- increased 7.2 percent last month from a year earlier, according to preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the ninth straight month of an on-year rise since April, when the trade terms logged the first on-year hike in over two years on low oil prices amid the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The figure is calculated by dividing the index for export prices by that for import prices, showing the amount of imports a country can buy for each unit of exports. The base year is 2015, with a benchmark index of 100.

Last month, the index for customs-cleared export prices gained 9.6 percent from the previous year, marking the second straight month of increase.

The index for import prices rose 2.8 from a year earlier, the first annualized hike in nine months, according to the data. (Yonhap)