The inflation rate jumped over the mid-three percent range last month to post the sharpest growth in nearly half a year.

According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, the nation’s consumer price index(CPI) stood at 112-point-99 in September, climbing three-point-seven percent from the same period last year as it surged by the most since April.

Since falling to two-point-three percent in July from a peak of six-point-three percent 12 months earlier, the rate has posted growth in the mid-three percent range for two consecutive months with the prices of petroleum products seeing narrower drops.

Prices of agriculture and livestock products logged growth of three-point-seven percent last month, higher than the two-point-seven percent in August, with the prices of farm products jumping by more than two percent from the five-point-four-percent growth in August.

The CPI for living necessities, meanwhile, climbed four-point-four percent.

An official of the statistics agency said the drop in prices of petroleum products narrowed due to the rise in global oil prices, adding that inflation trends will change depending on global oil prices.