Anchor: South Korea’s consumer price growth this year will likely dip below one percent, possibly to the lowest point since relevant statistics have been kept. An almost six-year low in the producer price index in October also lends support to concerns about low inflation.
Our Kim In-kyung has more.
 
Report: More financial institutions are predicting that South Korea's inflation rate will fall to a record low this year.
 
Korea Investment and Securities forecast in a report on Thursday that consumer prices will rise zero-point-six percent in 2015.
 
The Bank of Korea also estimated last month that consumer prices will rise zero-point-seven percent this year, down zero-point-two percentage points from its forecast in July.
 
Since Statistics Korea began keeping nationwide inflation data in 1965, the only time consumer prices grew less than one percent was 1999, at zero-point-eight percent, in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.
 
According to the statistics office, consumer prices only grew zero-point-six percent between January and October, largely due to a fall in oil prices.
 
However, excluding the impact of a hike in cigarette prices at the beginning of the year, consumer prices stayed almost flat. This is because the increase from an average of two-thousand-500 won to four-thousand-500 won a pack boosted consumer prices by zero-point-58 percentage points.  
 
October producer prices, released by the central bank on Thursday, also support forecasts for record-low inflation this year. The producer price index slipped to the lowest level in five and a half years last month.
 
Concerns are growing that the low inflation is a warning sign of deflation.
 
Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol cautioned on Tuesday that short-term risks to the South Korean economy include downward pressure on growth due to the global slowdown, noting that some economists are voicing concerns about deflation due to low oil prices.
 
Nevertheless, others say that unlike Japan or the eurozone, deflation isn't likely to be a risk for South Korea as core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, is in the one-percent range.
 
The central bank expects consumer prices to rise next year, not on the back of a strong economic recovery, but as the impact of low oil prices will subside.
Kim In-kyung, KBS World Radio News.