S.Korea's consumer prices rise 1 pct in March

South Korea's consumer prices rose 1 percent in March from a year earlier, staying above 1 percent for two months in a row, a government report showed on Friday.

The consumer price inflation slowed down from 1.3 percent in February to 1 percent in March, but it maintained the 1 percent level due to higher food prices, according to Statistics Korea.

Higher food prices may have led consumers to feel that the headline inflation is by far higher than the official data showed.

Fresh food index, which gauges the prices for 51 volatile items of vegetable and fruit, jumped 9.7 percent in March from a year earlier. It was the same as the February figure, which posted the highest in 37 months.

Onion prices surged 99.1 percent, with those for Chinese cabbage, scallion, garlic and white radish advancing 86.5 percent, 49.8 percent, 47.1 percent and 35.9 percent respectively.

In March, farm goods prices tended to rise as major vegetables stop being harvested. In January this year, unexpected heavy snow and cold spell led to lower inventory of key crops. Enditem