SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's consumer inflation eased in April for the first time in three months, official data showed on Thursday, coming in lower than economists' estimates and supporting market expectations for monetary easing in the latter half of the year.

The consumer price index stood 2.9% higher than the same month the year before, compared with a rise of 3.1% in March and a 3.0% gain tipped in a Reuters survey of economists.

It was the slowest annual rise since January, according to Statistics Korea.

The index was flat on a monthly basis, after rising 0.1% in March, while economists had expected a median 0.15% rise.

Prices of agricultural products fell 3.9% over the month, after the government deployed measures to stabilise food inflation, but prices of petroleum products rose 1.6%.

Core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy items, rose 2.3% on-year, slowing from an increase of 2.4% in March and the slowest pace since December 2021.

Most of the Bank of Korea's seven board members said at their rate decision meeting last month that monetary policy should stay restrictive for now to bring inflation down to its 2% target as supply-side uncertainties persisted, minutes showed earlier this week.