SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's consumer price rose 0.8 percent in January from a year earlier on the cheap global crude oil, a government report showed Friday.
The consumer price index stood at 104.24 in January, up 0.8 percent from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the first time in 12 months that the consumer price inflation fell below 1 percent.
The headline inflation, which hovered above 2 percent for three months through November, declined to 1.3 percent in December last year.
It was far below the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target of 2 percent. Pressure was forecast to reduce on the BOK to raise its benchmark interest rate, which was hiked to 1.75 percent in November.
The BOK's policy rate continued to stay below the U.S. Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate, which was raised to a range of 2.25-2.50 percent in December.
The low inflation came as oil product price tumbled on the lower global crude oil price. Price for oil products sank 9.7 percent in January from a year ago, with prices for gasoline and diesel sliding 12.7 percent and 7 percent each.
Price for industrial products, including oil product, dipped 0.7 percent in January from a year earlier, pulling down the overall headline inflation by 0.22 percentage points.
