July Consumer Prices Rise 6.3%... 6% Range for 2 Consecutive Months in 23 Years and 8 Months (Update)

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporters Kim Hyewon and Kwon Haeyoung] The domestic consumer price inflation rate exceeded 6% for the second consecutive month.

According to the July consumer price trends announced by Statistics Korea on the 2nd, the consumer price index last month was 108.74 (2020=100), up 6.3% compared to the same month last year. This is the highest increase since November 1998 (6.8%).

In June, consumer prices rose 6% year-on-year, marking the highest level in 23 years and 7 months. Thus, the domestic consumer price inflation rate has remained in the 6% range for two consecutive months. Recording over 6% for two consecutive months is the first time in 23 years and 8 months since October (7.2%) and November (6.8%) 1998.

The consumer price inflation rate rose 4% for two consecutive months in March (4.1%) and April (4.8%) this year, exceeded 5% in May (5.4%), and has continued to rise above the 6% threshold since June.

Last month, prices surged sharply across all categories of goods and services. In particular, agricultural, livestock, and fishery products such as vegetables, as well as electricity, gas, water, and personal services including dining out, contributed to the price increase.

Looking at goods prices, vegetables surged 25.9%, pushing agricultural, livestock, and fishery products up 7.1%. Industrial products rose 8.9%, with processed foods up 8.2% and petroleum products up 35.1%. Petroleum products showed a slowdown in the rate of increase compared to the previous month for the first time this year. The contribution of industrial products to the price increase was 3.11 percentage points, with petroleum products alone contributing 1.59 percentage points.

Due to public utility fee hikes last month, electricity, gas, and water prices rose 15.7%, increasing more than the previous month (9.6%). This is the highest increase since the survey began in January 2010.

Personal services rose 6.0%, marking the highest increase since April 1998 (6.6%). Dining out increased by 8.4%, and other personal services outside dining out rose by 4.3%.

The core inflation rate, which shows the underlying trend of prices excluding agricultural products and petroleum, rose 4.5%. The inflation rate excluding food and energy was 3.9%.

Eo Unseon, Director of Economic Trend Statistics at Statistics Korea, said, "Prices of industrial products such as petroleum and personal services such as dining out continued to rise sharply," adding, "The upward trend also expanded for agricultural, livestock, and fishery products such as vegetables and for electricity, gas, and water fees."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.