S. Korea's inflation falls to 10-month low at 0.7 pct in July
Xinhua, August 2, 2016 Adjust font size:
South Korea's consumer price inflation fell in July to the lowest in 10 months at 0.7 percent on the back of the continued effect of low crude oil prices, a government report showed on Tuesday.
Consumer prices rose 0.7 percent in July from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the lowest in 10 months since September last year.
After peaking at 1.2 percent in February, the headline inflation kept falling to 1.0 percent in April and 0.8 percent in June.
Oil product prices tumbled 8.9 percent last month, dragging down the overall headline inflation by 0.38 percentage points.
Farm goods prices slumped 4.0 percent, pulling down the inflation by 0.15 percentage points, while prices for electricity, tap water and gas declined 3.9 percent and dragged down the overall inflation by 0.18 percentage points.
Services prices increased 1.9 percent in July from a year earlier, bolstering up the overall inflation by 1.05 percentage points last month.
Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil products, gained 1.6 percent in July. The OECD-method core consumer prices excluding food and energy increased 1.7 percent last month, the lowest in 19 months. Endit