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Korea's producer prices drop at fastest pace in over 3 yrs in Nov.

Dec. 21, 2018 - 09:20 By Yonhap

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)