South Korea’s export prices increased for the first time in four months in February on higher prices of petroleum products, central bank data showed Friday.

The export price index stood at 82.97 last month, up 0.2 percent from the previous month, according to data released by the Bank of Korea. This marked the first on-month rise since October.

Steering the gain was the petroleum products and coal sector, which saw an 8 percent hike on-month.

The country’s benchmark Dubai crude reached $64.59 per barrel in February, up 9.3 percent from a month earlier.

Semiconductors, on the other hand, slipped amid slow demand. Prices of dynamic random-access memory chips shed 6.9 percent on-month during the same period.

Meanwhile, the import price index gained 1.9 percent on-month to 86.56, marking the highest on-month rise since May.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)