S.Korea's consumer prices rise 0.8 pct in June

 South Korea's consumer prices rose 0.8 percent in June from a year earlier, keeping a zero-percent increase for two straight months, a government report showed on Friday.

The consumer price inflation accelerated from 0.8 percent in January to 1.3 percent in February, before slowing to 1.0 percent in March and April each, according to Statistics Korea.

It fell further to 0.8 percent in May and stayed at the level in June, hovering below the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target of 2.0 percent for six straight months.

The zero-percent headline inflation came as low crude oil prices pulled down prices for oil products, which tumbled 9.6 percent in May from a year ago.

The oil products dragged down the overall inflation by 0.41 percentage points last month, while services prices raised the headline inflation by 1.24 percentage points.

Services prices gained 2.2 percent in May from a year earlier, with sewage fee and intra-city bus fare jumping 18.4 percent and 9.6 percent respectively.

Farm goods prices shrank 0.7 percent in May from a year ago, marking the fastest fall since March last year.

Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil products, gained 1.7 percent on a yearly basis, and the OECD-method core prices excluding energy and food advanced 2.0 percent last month.