South Korea's consumer price index (CPI) marked a 4.1-percent rise from a year earlier due to increased energy prices and weakened local currency, the National Statistical Office said at a report on Tuesday.

The rise was the first upward turn in seven months since last July when the inflation stood at a 10-year high of 5.9 percent.

"The skyrocketing prices of oil products and the local currency sliding against the US dollar seem to have contributed to the consumer price rise," Jeon Min-kyu, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, told local press.

"Inflation has not been a major concern for the government currently as it seemed to have been stabilizing," Jeon said.

"The latest inflation data could come as a major concern for policymakers who have to push for expansionary fiscal and monetary polices down the road," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2009)