South Korea's headline inflation dropped for the first time in September due to declines in prices of agricultural products and stabilizing petroleum prices, the statistics agency said Tuesday.
South Korea's consumer prices fell 0.4 percent in September from a year earlier, marking the first on-year drop in inflation since Statistics Korea began compiling related data in 1965.
The statistics agency said the record low consumer prices are blamed on a fall in prices of agricultural products, stabilizing prices of petroleum products and free education for high school students.
From a month earlier, the country's inflation rose 0.4 percent.
Core inflation -- which excludes agricultural and petroleum products -- rose 0.6 percent from a year earlier.
Prices of petroleum products fell 5.6 percent in September from a year earlier, while prices of agricultural products declined 13.8 percent, according to the data.
Utility prices rose 1.5 percent on-year last month, while prices of service charges increased 0.5 percent, according to the statistics agency. (Yonhap)