South Korea’s producer prices grew at the slowest clip in one year in November as prices of vegetables and fruits fell sharply, the central bank said Friday.
The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, rose 5.1 percent in November from a year earlier, cooling from a 5.6 percent on-year gain in October, according to the Bank of Korea.
Last month‘s data marked the slowest gain since a 4.9 percent gain tallied in November 2010, it added.
Compared with the previous month, producer prices slipped 0.2 percent, due mainly to the drop in vegetable prices and a decline in the prices of various commodities, including metal and chemical products.
The data comes a day after BOK policymakers held their monthly rate-setting meeting. The BOK froze the key interest rate at 3.25 percent for the sixth straight month, citing downside growth risks such as the eurozone debt crisis.
BOK Gov. Kim Choong-soo, meanwhile, said a fall in food and commodity prices will help stabilize consumer inflation, but the pace at which inflation ebbs is likely to be moderate, given a hike in public utility charges and high inflation expectations.
Last month, consumer prices rose 4.2 percent from the previous year, even after the state-run statistics agency rebased its consumer inflation index and overhauled its composition. In October, consumer prices rose 3.6 percent on-year. The BOK aims to keep annual inflation between 2 and 4 percent for 2010 through 2012. (Yonhap News)
