South Korea's headline inflation hit a 13-month high last month on higher prices for farm goods and oil products, a government report showed Thursday.

The consumer price index stood at 105.42 in October, up 2 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

It was the fastest increase since September last year, after staying below 2 percent for the past 12 months.

The higher inflation was attributed to expensive farm goods and oil products. The agricultural product price jumped 14.1 percent in October, pulling up the overall inflation by 0.63 percentage points.

Vegetable price surged 13.7 percent, marking the fastest rise in 14 months. Prices for rice, tomato, green onion, red pepper powder and white radish all posted a double-digit gain last month.

Oil product price soared 11.8 percent in October, driving up the consumer price inflation by 0.53 percentage points. The rising pace hovered above 10 percent for five months since June.

Gasoline and diesel prices picked up 10.8 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively, with those for liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene also rising by a double digit.

In a bid to help lower energy costs for households, the government decided to cut fuel taxes by about 15 percent for the next six months.

Price for private services gained 2.2 percent in October from a year earlier, pushing up the overall headline inflation by 0.7 percentage points. It indicated higher living costs for households.

The so-called livelihood price index, which reflects costs for daily necessities, added 2.4 percent last month, logging the highest increase in 13 months.

The fresh food price index, which measures costs for fish, shellfish, vegetable and fruit, climbed 10.5 percent, posting the highest in 14 months.

Despite the higher inflationary pressure on the supply-side, the demand-side inflationary pressure stayed low amid the lackluster domestic demand.

Core consumer price, which excludes volatile agricultural and oil products, rose 1.1 percent in October from a year earlier. The OECD-method core price, which excludes energy and food costs, inched up 0.9 percent, the lowest since February 2000.

The weak demand-side inflationary pressure was forecast to slow the pace of the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s rate increase.

The BOK left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.50 percent in October, but it indicated a rate hike later this month as two of the seven monetary policy board members claimed a 25-basis-point rate increase.

The BOK refrained from altering the rate since the bank raised it to the current level in November last year from an all-time low of 1.25 percent.

The U.S. Federal Reserve hiked its target rate in September to a range of 2.00-2.25 percent, widening a gap between borrowing costs of South Korea and the United States.

The U.S. rate hike increased pressure on the BOK to tighten its monetary stance as the widened gap could trigger a foreign capital outflow from the South Korean financial market.