[Weekly Outlook] Focus on Rising Import Prices Amid 'Ukraine Crisis'... Employment Trends Also Announced

As the international community strengthens trade sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, attention is also focused on the prices of seafood products that heavily depend on Russian imports. The photo shows salmon being sold at a large supermarket in downtown Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seon-hee] The Bank of Korea will announce the 'February Export and Import Price Index' on the 15th. Given the significant rise in international oil prices and raw material costs due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it is highly likely that the upward trend in import prices continued following January.

The import price index for January (2015=100) stood at 132.27, rising 4.1% in one month due to the increase in oil prices. Compared to the same month last year, the increase rate reached a substantial 30.1%.

Such a surge in import prices is expected to affect domestic consumer prices in the future, as these increases are reflected in domestic prices with a lag of several months depending on the item.

On the same day, the Bank of Korea will release the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on the 24th of last month. Although the base interest rate was decided to remain unchanged at the meeting, the detailed discussions among committee members will provide clues about the future direction of the base interest rate.

The Statistics Korea will announce the 'February Employment Trends' on the 16th. Attention is focused on whether the employment recovery trend continued amid daily COVID-19 cases soaring past 300,000 due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

The number of employed persons in January was 26,953,000, an increase of 1,135,000 compared to the same month last year, marking a record-high employment recovery. This is the largest increase in 21 years and 10 months since March 2000 (1,211,000), when recovery from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) foreign exchange crisis was underway.

However, this is largely attributed to the base effect caused by the nearly one million drop in employment in January last year.

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