Consumer inflation slowest in 16 years

South Korea’s consumer price growth was nearly flat for the third straight month in February, the state-run statistics office said Tuesday.

Statistics Korea reported that consumer prices increased 0.5 percent last month from a year ago, marking the slowest growth since 1999.

The consumer price index has seen its annual growth stay below 1 percent since October 2013, when the inflation rate stood at 0.9 percent. Inflation dropped to 0.8 percent in Dec. last year and January this year.

The Korean statistics bureau said that falling international oil prices have led to a drop in consumer price growth. Domestic oil prices decreased more than 24 percent on-year last month, and 5.3 percent from January.

“Falling oil prices led to a price drop of 5.3 percent in domestic oil products, affecting the general consumer price growth,” said Kim Bo-kyoung, an official of the bureau’s consumer price statistics unit.

However, the core inflation, which excludes prices of agricultural and oil products, increased around 2 percent for the second straight month, standing at 2.3 percent on-year. In September to December last year, the core inflation stood at around 1 percent.

The Bank of Korea, which downplayed concerns of deflation, is expected to reset its midterm inflation target range in the second half of the year after consulting with the government.

The new target for 2016-2018 will reflect the changing economic conditions, with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan emphasizing that Korea’s era of high growth experienced in the ’70s and ’80s would never return.

The central bank’s inflation targets over the last three years ranged from 2.5-3.5 percent, but private spending remained weak amid rising household debt and the devastation of the Sewol ship sinking.

The statistics office also reported on Monday that the country’s industrial production contracted 1.7 percent in January from the previous month due to weak consumer spending.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)