South Korea Dec producer inflation slows for sixth month

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s producer inflation slowed in December for a sixth month, dropping to the lowest rate in 20 months, central bank data showed on Friday.

The country’s producer price index stood 6% higher in December than a year ago, compared with 6.2% in November, according to the Bank of Korea.

The annual rate slowed for a sixth consecutive month, from a near 14-year high of 10% in June, and marked the slowest since April 2021.

The index fell 0.3% on a monthly basis, at the same pace seen in November, in its second month of declines.

For the whole of 2022, producer prices rose at an annual rate of 8.4%, faster than 6.4% in 2021 and the fastest in 14 years.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)