SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in four months in December, indicating that the country is keeping inflationary pressure under control, a government report showed Monday.

The country’s consumer prices index rose 1.4 percent in December from a year earlier, slowing from a 1.6 percent on-year gain in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea. From a month earlier, it grew 0.2 percent.

The on-year figure marked the slowest growth since August when the index increased 1.2 percent.

The core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, rose 1.2 percent on-year this month. This represented a deceleration from a 1.3 percent increase in November.

South Korea’s inflation situations have been easing over the past year after staying relatively high at around 4 percent throughout 2011 as the government strived to stabilize prices of food and other products that could have a direct impact on the livelihoods of ordinary people.

The report showed that prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products rose 1.6 percent on-year in December. They gained 1 percent from a month earlier.