South Korea's consumer inflation had for the first time earlier this year... turned negative, leading to fears of deflation.<br />But for October, it was back up... to zero.<br />Officials say they don't expect it to go back into minus territory in the near future.<br />Hong Yoo has the details.<br />Statistics Korea says the consumer inflation rate saw a slight increase but it remained at 0 percent compared to last year.<br />"The Consumer price index for October has gone up 0-point-2 percent compared to September to 105-point-46. And compared to same month last year, it remains the same."<br />In September, the nation's consumer price growth had dropped into the negative range for the first time on record, at minus point-four percent compared to the same month last year.<br />It was also the longest period that South Korea has seen a consumer inflation rate below 1 percent since the ten months from February to November 2015.<br />"The growth was lower than what everyone had anticipated because the economy still remains stagnant.<br />The low inflation rate is partly due to the low prices of supplies such as oil and agricultural goods."<br />Core inflation excluding agricultural and petroleum product prices rose 0-point-8 percent from a year earlier<br />And utility prices rose 1-point-5 percent on-year in October while prices of agricultural, livestock and fisheries products fell 3.8 percent.<br />But Statistics Korea says the reversing base effect and upcoming New Year will increase prices for certain sectors so consumer prices won't fall into negative growth in the near future.<br />Hong Yoo, Arirang News.<br />
