SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's terms of trade worsened for the 14th consecutive month through January on soft demand for semiconductor, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The net terms-of-trade index for goods stood at 83.35 in January, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It continued to fall since December 2017. The index gauges the amount of import that can be bought with a unit-export proceed.

The worsened terms of trade came as demand weakened for locally-made chips, which had led the country's export.

Hit by soft chip demand, the outbound shipment of the Asia's No. 4 economy kept falling for two months through January.

The export value index declined 5.6 percent in January from a year earlier, keeping a downward trend for the second consecutive month. In terms of volume, the export inched up 0.5 percent.