SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's consumer prices rose 0.7% in December from a year earlier, much faster than in the previous month and just a notch above the market's expectations, official data showed on Tuesday.
Compared with a month earlier, the consumer price index rose 0.2% in December, the data from Statistics Korea showed.
The median forecast from a Reuters survey was for the index to rise 0.6% in December on-year, up from a 0.2% gain in November, and by 0.1% on-month, compared with a 0.6% fall.
The average consumer inflation rate for the whole year fell to 0.4% from 1.5% in 2018, marking the lowest since South Korea began releasing such data in 1966.
But the reading was in line with the central bank's estimate of 0.4% for this year, which it revised downward in November from a 0.7% projection made in July, underscoring a high chance of further policy easing in 2020.