SEOUL, Feb 2 Reuters South Korea39;s consumer inflation ticked up in January to a threemonth high, against economists39; expectations, official data showed on Thursday.

The consumer price index was 5.2 higher in January than in the same month a year before, faster than 5.0 seen in December, according to Statistics Korea. Economists had expected the pace of growth to stay steady at 5.0.

The index rose 0.8 on a monthly basis, compared with 0.2 in the previous month and 0.5 tipped in a Reuters poll.

Reporting by Jihoon Lee and Choonsik Yoo Editing by Neil Fullick and Chris Reese

Source Reuters