South Korea’s consumer price growth this year will likely dip below one percent, possibly to the lowest point in 57 years.
 
Korea Investment and Securities said Thursday that it expects consumer prices to grow zero-point-six percent this year from last year.
 
Kyobo Securities forecast price growth this year will be zero-point-seven percent, the same rate suggested by the Bank of Korea last month. In July, the BOK predicted a zero-point-nine percent annual price growth.
 
The price growth is expected to hit the lowest since 1958, breaking the current record, zero-point-eight percent, set in 1999 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.
 
Since World War II, consumer prices in South Korea have recorded double-digit, sometimes triple-digit, growth in many years, including 58-point-three percent in 1948, 167-point-five percent in 1950 and 28-point-seven percent in 1980.
 
But, inflation stabilized near three percent around 2000, before further slowing down to one-point-three percent in the past two years.