South Korea’s statistics office said today that the consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.6% in January year-on-year.
This is the fourth consecutive month in which CPI rose more than 3%, reflecting rising energy prices and the global supply chain crisis, including price increases for agricultural products.
The core CPI, which excludes volatile agricultural and oil prices, rose 2.6% in January from a year earlier, the most since 2015.
Thus, the CPI remains above the target inflation of 2% issued by the South Korean central bank. Most central banks continue to push the reason that the supply chains are interrupted. As the supply chains are slowly easing, we should soon see if the CPI will then move towards the target.