South Korea’s producer prices declined for the 15th straight month in December as the local currency’s ascent to the U.S. dollar cut import prices, the central bank said Monday.

The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, slid 0.4 percent in December from a year earlier, compared with a 0.9 percent on-year decline in November, according to the Bank of Korea.

On an on-year growth basis, the producer prices have fallen every month since October 2012, when they fell 0.5 percent. Last year, the index fell 1.6 percent on-year.

The Korean won appreciated 1.92 percent to the greenback in December compared with the previous year, according to the central bank. (Yonhap News)