South Korea’s producer prices fell at the sharpest pace in 41 months in March as oil prices declined and the local currency rose per the dollar, the central bank said Wednesday.

The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, declined 2.4 percent in March from a year earlier, after declining 1.6 percent on-year in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea.

The data marked the sharpest fall since a 3.1 percent on-year decline tallied for October 2009.

In March, oil prices declined 13.8 percent from the previous year and the local currency rose an average of 2.15 percent to the dollar compared with the same period in 2012.

Compared with a month earlier, producer prices inched down 0.4 percent on falls in oil prices after gaining 0.7 percent on-month in February.

The on-year downward trend of producer prices indicates eased price pressures, but the BOK surprised the market by freezing the key rate at 2.75 percent for the sixth straight month last week.

South Korea’s inflationary pressure is largely deemed benign as its consumer prices grew in the 1 percent range for the fourth straight month in February. The BOK aims to keep its inflation between 2.5 percent and 3.5 percent for 2013-2015. (Yonhap News)