SEOUL - South Korea's consumer price growth accelerated in November, rising above the upper ceiling of the Bank of Korea (BOK)'s inflation target band 2-4 percent, a government report showed Thursday.

Consumer prices jumped 4.2 percent in November from a year earlier, up from a 3.6 percent on-year gain tallied in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea. It was the first time in three months that the consumer price inflation breached the 4 percent level.

From a month before, consumer prices rose 0.1 percent, marking the first positive monthly gain in three months.

The data came after the statistical agency revised its method of calculating consumer price index (CPI) as part of its regular revision for the index that has been made every five years. The updated version changed the base year for the CPI to 2010 from the previous 2005, and the revised version was retroactively applied to January 2010.

Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile agricultural and oil product prices, advanced 3.5 percent on-year in November, up from a 3.2 percent on-year rise in October.

The newly adopted OECD-method core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, climbed 2.8 percent last month from a year before, up from a 2.6 percent on-year gain in October.

Despite falling food and energy prices, the nation's consumer price inflation accelerated last month, hinting that demand-side inflationary pressure was mounting.

Prices for agricultural, dairy and fisheries goods fell 1.5 percent on-month in November, with agricultural goods prices dropping 2.4 percent over the cited period.

The fresh food price index, a gauge of fruits and vegetables, sank 3.1 percent on-month last month, with vegetable and fruit prices diving 7.5 percent and 2.6 percent respectively.

Prices for industrial goods rose 0.7 percent on-month in November, but petroleum product prices edged down 0.1 percent over the same period.

Service prices inched up 0.1 percent in November from the previous month. Housing rental prices gained 0.5 percent on-month last month, but prices for public and private services fell 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent each.