South Korea's consumer prices growth slowed to 4.3 percent in September due to a fall in agricultural product prices, a government report showed Monday.
Consumer prices rose 4.3 percent in September from a year earlier, sharply down from a 5.3 percent on-year surge in August, according to the report by Statistics Korea. From a month before, consumer prices increased 0.1 percent last month, slowing from a 0. 9 percent on-month gain the previous month.
The September reading was sharply lower than a month earlier, but it breached the upper ceiling of the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target band 2-4 percent for the ninth straight month.
Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile energy and food prices, rose 3.9 percent in September from a year earlier, slightly down from a 4 percent on-year gain tallied in August, according to the report. From a month earlier, core consumer prices gained 0.2 percent last month.
Amid a plunge in headline consumer inflation, core inflation edged down by a mere 0.1 percentage point in September, indicating that demand-pull inflationary pressures remained strong.
"The slowdown in consumer price growth was mainly attributable to a sharp fall in agricultural product prices last month. There were no big changes in prices for industrial products and services, " an official at the statistical agency told Xinhua.
Prices for agricultural, dairy and fisheries goods rose 2.3 percent in September from the previous year, sharply down from a 13.3 percent on-year jump in August. Agricultural goods prices fell 0.7 percent on-year last month, contributing mainly to the slowdown in consumer price growth.
The fresh food price index, a gauge of vegetables and fruits, gained 7.4 percent on-year in September, down from a 13.8 percent on-year advance the previous month.
Prices for industrial goods increased 7.7 percent in September from a year earlier, up from a 7.1 percent on-year gain in August. Petroleum product prices fell by 0.1 percentage point on-month in September amid slowing global oil price rises.
Service prices rose 2.8 percent in September from a year before, down from a 3.1 percent on-year gain in August. Housing rental prices rose 0.4 percent on-month in September, but prices for public and private services decreased 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent last month respectively.