Just coming in... for the first time, South Korea's consumer prices did not rise at all in August compared to a year ago.<br />For more, we have our Yoon Jung-min on the line.<br />Jung-min, tell us more.<br />Sure, Conn-young. Statistics Korea announced this morning that overall consumer prices remained unchanged in August compared to last year.<br />That's never happened in all the months data have been collected since 1965.<br />And since January,... consumer inflation has stayed below 1 percent.<br />The data show it was held down by lower prices for agricultural and fishery products and oil.<br />In particular, agricultural goods fell some 11 percent on-year due to relatively stable weather conditions this summer.<br />Oil prices were down more than 6 percent... driven by a drop in prices internationally and a temporary tax cut on fuel.<br />We're also hearing this morning that the Bank of Korea has lowered its calculation of growth in the second quarter. Can you tell us more about that?<br />You're right. For the April to June period, the BOK revised the country's GDP growth down to 1 percent compared the previous quarter to some 379 billion U.S. dollars.<br />Now, that's slightly lower than what the bank initially predicted.<br />The central bank mainly attributed the slow growth to sluggish exports and less government spending.<br />By sector, growth in agriculture and fisheries fell more than 3 percent,...while manufacturing grew slightly over 1 percent.<br />This morning, the central bank also said real gross national income increased by zero-point-2 percent on-quarter from April to June.<br />That figure was slightly up due mostly to an increase in GDP... despite a fall in exports.<br />That's all from me at this hour. Conn-young.<br />
