South Korea's consumer price growth stayed at a low level last month due to low weightings of farm goods in the country's consumer price index (CPI), the statistical agency said Tuesday.

According to Statistics Korea, the hike in agricultural product prices was reflected in the August CPI, but the farm goods have low weightings in the basket of goods and services comprising the CPI, having no significant impact on the overall consumer prices. The farm goods account merely for 4.35 percent in the CPI basket.

South Korea's consumer price growth slowed in August to 1.2 percent, the lowest in more than 12 years. The figure stayed at the 1 percent level for two straight months, and remained below the midpoint of Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target band of 2-4 percent for six months in a row.

Despite the low level of the CPI reading, many South Korean consumers seemed to feel that the consumer price inflation was increasing higher due to jumping agricultural product prices stemming from severe drought and a scorching heat during the summer season.

The fresh food price index, a gauge of fruits and vegetables, jumped 4.5 percent in August from a month earlier. Processed food prices gained 0.4 percent last month due to a surge in international grain prices, and oil product prices advanced 1.8 percent, the first rebound in four months.

The statistical agency also attributed the base effect to the lower August consumer price inflation. In August 2011, consumer prices surged 4.7 percent on an on-year basis, resulting in the lower August index compared with a year before.

The agency promised to make efforts to narrow the gap between the reported index and consumer-sensory index, saying that it planned to update the weightings in the CPI basket in the third year after revising the CPI regularly every five years.