South Korea's producer prices rose to a four-year high in August as an unprecedented heat wave hurt the farming sector, central bank data showed Friday.
The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, reached 105.43 last month, up 0.5 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
The August figure is the highest reading since August 2014 when the figure hit 105.57, the central bank said, adding that from a year earlier, it rose 3.0 percent to extend its positive streak to 22 straight months from November 2016.
The index of agricultural products jumped a whopping 18.3 percent on-month in August -- the largest hike since September 2010 -- when the number reached 18.8 percent, as the production of vegetables was hit by the record-breaking hot spell.
Livestock products grew 3.5 percent, while marine products fell 3.7 percent on-month, the findings showed.
Last month, prices of industrial goods, petrochemicals and gas went up 0.1 percent on-month, and the price index for the service sector edged up 0.1 percent on a rise in restaurant and hotel prices in peak summer vacation season, the BOK noted. (Yonhap)