This Year's Consumer Price Inflation Rate at 5.1%... Highest Since IMF Crisis (Update)

Statistics Korea Announces December and Annual Consumer Price Trends

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporters Kim Hyewon and Lee Junhyung] This year, the consumer price inflation rate soared to 5.1%, marking the highest level in 24 years since the foreign exchange crisis.

The Statistics Korea announced on the 30th that this year's consumer price inflation rate was recorded at 5.1%. This is the highest rate in 24 years since 1998 (7.5%), when the foreign exchange crisis occurred.

By category, industrial products rose by 6.9%, driving the overall price increase. Petroleum products increased by 22.2%, the highest figure since 1998 (33.4%).

Processed foods rose by 7.8%, and agricultural, livestock, and fishery products increased by 3.8%. Due to the pressure from rising international raw material prices, electricity, gas, and water prices rose by 12.6%, marking the highest level since statistics began to be compiled separately in 2010. The personal services inflation rate was 5.4%, the highest since 1996 (7.6%).

The core inflation rate (index excluding agricultural products and petroleum) that shows the underlying trend of prices was 4.1%. Another core inflation indicator, the index excluding food and energy, rose by 3.6%.

The living cost index, which is composed mainly of frequently purchased items and is closer to perceived inflation, rose by 6.0%. Eo Unseon, the Economic Trend Statistics Director at Statistics Korea, analyzed this year's annual inflation trend, stating, "Although the rise in agricultural, livestock, and fishery products such as livestock products has slowed, the increase in processed foods, petroleum products, and electricity and gas charges has expanded, resulting in a 2.6 percentage point wider gap compared to the previous year."

Looking at the monthly figures, consumer prices in December, the last month, rose by 5.0%, the same as the previous month (5.0%). High inflation above 5% has continued for eight consecutive months since May. This year's inflation rate started at 3.6% in January, rose to 5.4% in May, 6.0% in June, peaked at 6.3% in July, and has been gradually decreasing since then.

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