The Bank of Korea(BOK) has forecast inflation to stabilize in the fourth quarter as the August jump in inflation to three-point-four percent did not deviate much from projections.

Presiding over an inflation meeting on Tuesday, BOK Deputy Governor Kim Woong said the rate, which rose last month on the back of recent surges in global oil and domestic agricultural prices, could persist or even rise further before hovering around three percent from October.

He cited continued slowdown in momentum in the service industry and settling agricultural prices due to weather conditions as driving factors behind stabilization in the last three months of the year.

The deputy governor also pointed to a base effect as the reason for the lack of change in the on-month rate of core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices.

At a separate ministerial meeting, first vice finance minister Kim Byoung-hwan pledged all-out efforts to ensure that the prices of 20 major goods in high demand ahead of the Chuseok thanksgiving holiday in late September remain more than five percent lower than last year.