South Korea’s consumer price index rose 4.1 percent in March, the highest rate in a decade, up from 3.7 percent in February, government data showed on Tuesday. The 4.1 percent increase is the highest since December 2011, when prices surged 4.2 percent year-on-year, Yonhap News Agency (YNA) reported, citing data from Statistics Korea. The statistics agency said the inflation rate increased as the Russia-Ukraine crisis fueled surging oil and energy costs. “There are concerns that price pressure could further rise due to the Ukraine crisis. For the time being, the possibility that inflation growth will sharply slow is not high,” Ee Woon-sun, a Statistics Korea spokesperson, told YNA. The core inflation rate, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 2.9 percent compared to the previous year. Petroleum prices increased 31.2 percent year-on-year in March, while agricultural, livestock, and fisheries prices surged 0.4 percent in March. Prices of processed foods …