Consumer prices continued to stabilize in August, with inflation slowing to two percent.

According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, the consumer price index stood at 114-point-54 last month, up two percent from a year earlier. This continues the downward trend in inflation since the rate fell below three percent in April and marks the lowest inflation rate since March 2021, when it reached one-point-nine percent. 

An increase in industrial product prices led overall gains, jumping one-point-four percent on-year.

Prices of petroleum products rose zero-point-one percent from a year earlier, a sharp drop from the eight-point-four percent on-year increase in July, reflecting the decline in global oil prices.

Prices of agriculture, livestock and fisheries products increased two-point-four percent, while the fresh food index expanded three-point-two percent, slowing down from July's seven-point-seven-percent growth.

Fresh fruit prices, which rose by more than 20 percent in July, slowed to nine-point-six percent growth in August. But prices of pears and apples continued to soar, expanding by 120 percent and 17 percent, respectively, last month.