S. Korea`s consumer prices rise 1.6 pct in July

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details from para 3-6; RECASTS headline)
By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's consumer prices grew at the slowest pace
in over nine years in July due to a sharp plunge in fuel products, a government
report showed Monday.
According to the report by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the consumer
price index rose 1.6 percent last month from a year earlier, slowing from a 2
percent on-year advance the previous month. It was the slowest annual growth
since May 2000 when prices rose just 1.1 percent.
"The 20.9 percent negative growth for products like gasoline, diesel and kerosene
checked potential price gains caused by seasonal factors," Song Seong-heon, head
of the NSO's price statistics division said.
Seasonal factors such as bad weather and start of the summer vacation season
pushed up farm product prices 5.7 percent compared to the year before, with
service sector prices gaining 2.2 percent. The later covers reservations for
hotels and resorts that are in high demand in the summer months.
The NSO report, meanwhile, said core inflation, excluding volatile oil and food
prices, moved up 3.2 percent last month, slowing from the previous month's 3.5
percent rise, the report showed.
For the seven months of 2009, consumer prices gained 3.1 percent on-year.
The report said that the drop in growth tallied for July also marks the fifth
month in a row that consumer price growth ran at a slower month-on-month pace.
Consumer prices grew 4.1 percent on-year in February, but numbers were down to
3.6 percent in April and 2.7 percent in May.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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