SEOUL - South Korea's consumer prices gained 4.2 percent this month, rising above the upper ceiling of the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target band 2-4 percent for two straight months, a government report showed Friday.

Consumer prices advanced 4.2 percent in December from a year earlier following a 4.2 percent rise in November, according to the report by Statistics Korea. From a month before, consumer prices rose 0.4 percent.

Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil product prices, gained 3.6 percent on-year in December, while the newly adopted OECD-method core CPI excluding food and energy prices climbed 2.7 percent over the cited period.

Despite a fall in vegetable prices, overall prices for farm and oil products climbed this month, fueling inflationary pressures.

The fresh food price index, a gauge of fruits and vegetables, sank 3.6 percent in December from the previous year, with fresh vegetable prices diving 14.8 percent over the same period.

Prices for agricultural, fishery and livestock products gained 5.8 percent on-year in December, with livestock and fishery product prices jumping 12.8 percent and 4.6 percent respectively.

High energy costs drove up prices of manufactured products, which climbed 5.3 percent on-year this month. Prices of petroleum products jumped 11 percent over the same period.

Service sector prices grew 2.8 percent in December from a year earlier. Prices for housing rental and private services rose 5 percent and 3.8 percent each, but public service prices fell 0.8 percent.