Published : Dec. 21, 2018 - 09:20
South Korea's producer prices dropped at the fastest clip in more than three years in November on sagging crude oil prices, central bank data showed Friday.
The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 104.67 last month, down 0.7 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea.
It is the sharpest on-month decline since October 2015, when the index lost 0.7 percent.
(Yonhap)
Also, the producer price index went south for the second consecutive month, following a 0.4 percent fall in October, the first on-month decline in some 10 months.
On a year-on-year basis, it rose 1.6 percent to extend its positive streak for the 25th-straight month since November 2016.
The BOK said a decrease in crude prices dragged down the country's producer price index last month. Asia's fourth-largest economy imports almost all of its crude oil.
The benchmark Dubai crude averaged $65.6 in November, down 17.4 percent from $79.9 a month earlier.
But the November average was still 7.8 percent higher than last year's $60.8.
As a result, prices of industrial goods, petrochemicals and gas plunged 8.2 percent on-month, while the price index for the service sector edged down 0.1 percent. (Yonhap)