Producer prices in South Korea shrank significantly from a year earlier in August, marking the 13th consecutive monthly drop largely caused by a cut in global oil prices, data showed Friday.
  
The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 100.88 last month, down 4.4 percent from the same month last year, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
  
The figure also marks a 0.5 percent drop from a month earlier.
  
The price of gasoline plunged 30.2 percent from a year earlier with the price of diesel also plummeting 38.6 percent on-year.
  
Utilities continued moving down at a faster clip with electricity, gas and tap water fees tumbling a combined 10.6 percent, compared with a 10.3 percent on-year drop in the previous month and a 10.2 percent drop in June.
  
The index covering manufactured goods dropped 7.1 percent on-year in August while the index covering agricultural and fisheries products gained 4.4 percent on-year to 108.13.
  
South Korea's consumer price growth has remained weak mostly due to low energy prices with inflation remaining below 1 percent for the ninth consecutive month in August, government data released earlier showed.
  
In August, the price index covering raw materials, including energy, tumbled 28.6 percent from a year earlier while the index covering final goods and services gained 0.4 percent. (Yonhap)