South Korea's consumer prices rose 2 percent in May from a year earlier on expensive oil products and higher farm goods prices, a government report showed Thursday.
The headline inflation hovered around 2 percent this year, posting 2 percent in January, 1.9 percent in February, 2.2 percent in March, 1.9 percent in April and 2 percent in May, according to Statistics Korea.
Oil product prices advanced 8.9 percent in May from a year earlier, raising the overall consumer price inflation by 0.37 percentage points.
Prices for agricultural, livestock and fishery products picked up 6.2 percent, the fastest rise since January this year.
It lifted the overall May inflation by 0.48 percentage points. Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile farm goods and oil products, gained 1.4 percent in May compared with a year ago.
The OECD-method core prices, which omit volatile food and energy, rose 1.5 percent last month.
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