SEOUL, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Prices for imported products in South Korea fell last month on cheaper crude oil, central bank data showed Friday.
The import price index declined 1.4 percent in May from a month earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The import prices influence the countrys consumer price inflation with a certain time gap.
The index, which continued to rise in the October-December quarter last year, went up and down for the first five months of this year.
The May fall was attributed to lower crude oil prices. Dubai crude, South Koreas benchmark, averaged 50.72 U.S. dollars per barrel in May, down 3.0 percent from the previous month.
Prices for imported raw materials such as mining products slumped 1.7 percent, with the intermediary goods prices sliding 1.6 percent.
Among the intermediary goods, prices for imported coal and oil products tumbled 5.4 percent, with those for chemical goods shedding 2.1 percent.
Prices for capital and consumer goods fell 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.
