S Korea\\\'s CPI slows on stable farm goods prices

SEOUL, Aug 1 (Xinhua): South Korea's consumer price inflation slowed last month due to stable prices of farm goods, a government report showed today.
Consumer prices gained 1.6 per cent in July from a year earlier after increasing 1.7 per cent both in May and June, according to Statistics Korea.
The headline inflation accelerated from 1 per cent in February to 1.3 per cent in March and 1.5 per cent in April, but it began to slow last month after peaking at 1.7 per cent.
Those figures stayed far below the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target band of 2.5- 3.5 per cent.
Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil products, rose 2.2 per cent in July from a year earlier.  The core inflation moved in a narrow range of 2.1-2.3 per cent since March this year.
The OECD-method core consumer prices, excluding food and energy prices, gained 1.4 per cent in July on a yearly basis. The prices inched up 0.2 per cent from a month earlier. Lower farm goods prices put downward pressure on headline inflation. Prices for agricultural, livestock and fishery products, fell 2.2 per cent in July from a year earlier. Pork and beef prices jumped 14.2 per cent and 8.7 per cent each last month, but prices of onion, spinach and lettuce plunged more than 30 per cent.