August Producer Prices Rise 0.3% Month on Month

SEOUL, KOREA- The August producer prices rose 0.3 percent from the previous month, turning to the positive territory in six months. But the prices are down 1.3 percent from the same month last year. According to a report "August 2013 Producer Prices" published by the Bank of Korea on September 17, the producer price index in August was 105.81, up 0.3 percent from July. The index had shown a declining trend for five straight months between March and July following a 0.7-percent rise in February.

Lim Soo-young, BOK manager in charge of producer price statistics, said, "The rise was led by vegetable prices which increased 25.2 percent during the month because of unusually hot weather and drought. Prices of other items such as some manufacturing goods and public utilities also rose due to oil price rises."

By item, agricultural and fishery goods rose on average 5.4 percent, including napa cabbage (122.8%), tomatoes (46.0%), potatoes (29.3%), raw milk (10.7%), and eggs (6.2%). Manufacturing goods prices rose slightly 0.1 percent, including propane gas (4.1%), smartphones (1.7%), and laptop computers (2.9%). Service prices increased 0.2 percent, led by lodging (10.4%) and domestic passenger airline service (6.8%).

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