Consumer price growth hit a record low this year.
 
Statistics Korea said Thursday that consumer prices grew at zero-point-seven percent this year, the lowest since the agency began compiling related data in 1965.
 
The previous record of zero-point-eight percent was set in 1998 during the Asian financial crisis.
 
The statistics agency attributed the low inflation to depressed oil prices, coupled with an economic slump.
 
It said tobacco prices, which jumped 80 percent to four-thousand-500 won per pack in January, pulled up consumer prices by zero-point-58 percent this year, but could not offset the downward pressure of low oil prices.
 
The low inflation trend, however, may turn around in the coming months.
 
Consumer prices grew one-point-three percent in December from a year earlier, the highest on-year growth in 16 months.
 
The statistics agency cited a slowing pace at which international oil prices are falling.
 
It added that consumer prices overall are moving upward, led by the prices of agro-fishery products and public service fees, which recorded steeper on-year growth this month compared to that of December 2014.