SEOUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's consumer prices rose 1.9 percent in February from a year earlier due to more expensive oil products, a government report showed on Friday.
The consumer price inflation slightly fell from 2.0 percent in January, but it stayed at a higher level compared with recent months, according to Statistics Korea.
The headline inflation bottomed at 0.5 percent in August last year, before rising above 1 percent from September to December.
Oil products prices surged 13.3 percent in February on a yearly basis, raising the overall headline inflation by 0.54 percentage points. It was the fastest gain since November 2011.
Prices for services and farm goods gained 2.1 percent and 4.3 percent each last month, lifting the overall inflation by 1.17 percentage points and 0.335 percentage points respectively.
Prices for electricity, tap water and natural gas declined 8.3 percent, pulling down the consumer price inflation by 0.35 percentage points.
Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil products, rose 1.5 percent last month, while the OECD-method core prices excluding food and energy advanced 1.7 percent.
