Seoul: South Korea's consumer prices experienced a growth of 2.2 percent in June, primarily influenced by increased costs associated with industrial goods and services, as reported by government data on Wednesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the data from Statistics Korea indicated that consumer prices, serving as a critical measure of inflation, saw a year-on-year rise of 2.2 percent last month. This follows a period where inflation surpassed the Bank of Korea's 2 percent target for four consecutive months up to April, before slightly decreasing to 1.9 percent in May.
The June inflation rate represents the sharpest annual increase since January, when it similarly reached 2.2 percent. The statistics agency explained that the recent depreciation of the local currency contributed to increased import prices for industrial goods, particularly processed food products, thereby exerting inflationary pressure. Additionally, a consistent rise in service prices played a role in the overall inflation increase.
Processed food products experienced a 4.6 percent year-on-year price rise, marking the most significant increase since November 2023, contributing 0.39 percentage points to the overall inflation rate in June. Noteworthy price hikes were observed in bread and coffee, which rose by 6.4 percent and 12.4 percent on-year, respectively. Meanwhile, petroleum product prices saw a marginal increase of 0.3 percent, reversing the previous month's decline.
Conversely, prices of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products decreased by 1.8 percent on-year in June. Despite this, egg prices saw a 6 percent surge. Core inflation, which excludes the more volatile food and energy prices, increased by 2 percent in June, maintaining the same growth rate as the previous month.