SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's consumer prices rose 2.2 percent in July from a year earlier as heavy rain and heat wave raised prices for vegetables and fruit, a government report showed Tuesday.
The consumer price inflation hovered around 2 percent this year, posting 1.9 percent in April, 2.0 percent in May and 1.9 percent in June respectively, according to Statistics Korea.
Vegetable prices jumped 10.1 percent, raising the overall headline inflation by 0.39 percentage points. Prices for agricultural products surged 9.8 percent on the sweltering heat and the rainy season.
Prices for livestock and fishery products advanced 8.1 percent and 5.7 percent each, lifting the overall inflation by 0.28 percentage points.
Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile farm goods and oil products, gained 1.8 percent in July from a year ago. The OECD-method core prices, which exclude food and energy, rose 1.5 percent.
