The inflation rate picked up slightly from the previous month in July on still high fruit prices and a reduction in fuel tax cuts.

Statistics Korea said on Friday that the country's consumer price index stood at 114-point-13 in July, up two-point-six percent from a year earlier.

Consumer prices rose two-point-four percent in June, remaining in the two-percent rage since April after rising above the three percent mark to reach three-point-one percent in February and March..

The prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products rose five-point-five percent in July, with the prices of apples and pears soaring by nearly 40 percent and over 150 percent, respectively.

The prices of petroleum products also rose eight-point-four percent year-on-year, the largest gain in 21 months since October 2022.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and oil prices, rose two-point-one percent in July from a year earlier.