ANN/THE KOREA HERALD – Consumer price growth resurged to above three per cent in February, showing that Korea may be facing stickier-than-expected inflation, data suggested on Wednesday.
Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, advanced 3.1 per cent on-year last month, according to data from Statistics Korea.
Though price growth fell to 2.8 per cent in January, dipping into the two per cent range for the first time in six months, it rebounded to above three per cent within a month.
The uptick marks the first time in four months that price growth has accelerated on-month, as price growth had shown a steady decline in recent months, inching down from 3.8 per cent in October to 3.3 per cent in November and to 3.2 per cent in December.
In past months, Korea’s inflation rate appeared to be easing out, nearing the target goal of two per cent, but February’s data suggests that inflation has reaccelerated due to soaring costs for food and energy use, the state-run statistics agency assessed.
The price of agricultural products advanced by 20.9 per cent, bringing headline inflation up by 0.8 percentage points. Fruit prices, in particular, increased by 41.2 per cent, marking the sharpest increase since 1991.
The rise in international oil prices also increased inflationary pressure. The price of petroleum products fell by 1.5 per cent in February, relatively low when compared to the five per cent drop from the month before.
Yet service prices inched up by 2.5 per cent, down from the 2.6-per-cent increase seen a month before. The price of dining out surged by 3.8 per cent but the increase was the smallest seen in 28 months since the growth rate of 3.4 per cent recorded in October 2021.
With price growth continuing to surge in major economies around the world despite central banks’ aggressive monetary policy, some are suggesting that inflation has become the “new normal” amid the changing times.
