Seoul, February 03 (QNA) - South Korea's consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in five months in January, partly helped by the steady prices of petroleum products.

According to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics, consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, increased 2% from a year earlier last month, South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap) reported.

It marks the smallest on-year increase since August, when the figure stood at 1.7%.

Inflation had remained above the Bank of Korea's 2% target for four consecutive months from September to December.

The ministry attributed last month's slower growth primarily to petroleum product prices, which remained largely unchanged from a year earlier.

In December, petroleum product prices jumped 6.1% from a year earlier, marking the largest on-year gain since February, when their prices increased 6.3%.

Prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products rose 2.6% from a year earlier in January, marking the slowest growth since 1.9% in September.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, went up 2.3% on-year in January, the ministry said. (QNA)