South Korea's producer prices continued to drop last month due to tumbling international oil prices.

According to data from the Bank of Korea on Thursday, the producer price index for all commodities and services came to 102-point-08 in April, down point-seven percent from a month earlier.  From a year earlier, it slipped one-point-five percent. 

The index, a key barometer of future inflation, dropped for the third consecutive month since February.

Producer prices of coal and petrochemical products plunged over 22-point-six percent on-month and 43-point-five percent on-year, the largest drops since the bank started compiling the data in 1965. 

The previous biggest on-year drop was 35-point-six percent in February 1999.

The drop is mainly attributed to falling oil prices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Prices of the country's benchmark Dubai crude marked 20 dollars and 39 cents per barrel on average in April, down more than ten dollars from the previous month. 
 
The index for agricultural goods rose point-two percent on-month, while the figure for services remains almost unchanged.