(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) South Korea's producer prices declined for the 15th straight month in December as the local currency's ascent to the US dollar cut import prices, the central bank said Monday.
The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, slid 0.4% in December from a year earlier, compared with a 0.9% on-year decline in November, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK
On on-year growth basis, the producer prices have fallen every month since October 2012, when they fell 0.5
Last year, the index fell 1.6% on-year, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agenc
The Korean won appreciated 1.92% to the greenback in December compared with the previous year, according to the central ban
The subdued producer prices indicate that a low inflation trend may continue for the time being as the producer prices could be used to roughly predict the rate of change in prices in the coming month
The data came as the BOK froze the key interest rate at 2.5% for the seventh straight month in January as the local economy has been showing signs of a moderate recovery amid tame inflation. The central bank said earlier the growth of Korea's consumer prices is also likely to remain low for the time being due to stable agricultural prices but that it is forecast to gradually rise
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