South Korea's consumer price growth staying below 1%

South Korea's consumer price growth stayed below 1% in November, aided by falls in costs of farming products, but quickened slightly from the previous month, a government report showed Monday. The country's consumer price index rose 0.9% on-year in November, accelerating from a 0.7% on-year gain tallied in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea. The October figure marked the slowest on-year consumer price growth since July 1999 when it increased 0.3%, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency. The core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, rose 1.8% on-year in November. Prices of fresh food, including fruits and vegetables, fell 8.5% on-year in November. In particular, prices of vegetables plunged 14.8% from a year earlier, the report showed. The "livelihood price" index, which measures the costs of key daily necessities, also inched up 0.2% from a year earlier and fell 0.2% from a month earlier. The latest data comes amid cautious expectations that the country's economy is showing some signs of picking up following a prolonged slow growth trend. The country's gross domestic product grew 1.1% in the third quarter from three months earlier. This marked the fastest quarterly growth since a 1.3% on-quarter advance in the first quarter of 2011. The government earlier predicted that the country's consumer prices will grow 1.7% this year and the growth rate will rise to 2.8% next year. The South Korean finance ministry said that the consumer prices gain will accelerate down the road on a rise in prices of agricultural goods and oil products.