South Korea's consumer prices rose 1. 5 percent in January from a year earlier, staying at the 1 percent range for three straight months, a government report showed Friday.

The January figure was up from a 1.4 percent gain tallied in the previous month, but it stayed at the 1 percent level after hovering at the front end of 2 percent in September and October last year.

Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil product prices, advanced 1.2 percent on-year in January, unchanged from the prior month. The OECD-method core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, came in at an annual rate of 1.4 percent.