Seoul---South Korea's inflation rate grew less than one percent for the second consecutive month in January, reflecting plunging oil prices, according to government data released Tuesday.
Consumer prices in January rose 0.8 percent from a year earlier, unchanged from a yearly gain in December, state-run Statistics Korea said.
"Weak global energy prices caused utilities, petroleum products costs to fall, as well as transportation-related outlays in January that offset the surge in cigarette prices," Kim Bo-Kyoung, a senior Statistics Korea was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.
South Korea raised cigarette prices by an average 80 percent starting this year.
Kim said that January's numbers are not any indication of a deflation, noting that aside from oil and transportation, prices generally went up.
Oil prices plunged 20.4 percent on-year.
Another official with Statistics Korea told AFP that the January outcome was the lowest inflation rate since September 1999, when it also came in at 0.8 percent.
The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, rose 2.4 percent on-year in January, compared with a 1.6 percent rise in the previous month.
AFP
