South Korea’s consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in five months in January, partly helped by the steady prices of petroleum products, government data showed Tuesday. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, increased 2 percent from a year earlier last month, according to the data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It marks the smallest on-year increase since August, when the figure stood at 1.7 percent. Inflation had remained above the Bank of Korea’s 2 percent target for four consecutive months from September to December. The ministry attributed last month’s slower growth primarily to petroleum product prices, which remained largely unchanged from a year earlier. South Korea, which depends heavily on energy imports, is particularly vulnerable to external price shocks, which often drive domestic inflation. In December, petroleum product prices jumped 6.1 percent from a year earlier, marking the largest on-year gain since February, when their prices increased 6.3 percent. Prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier in January, ma
