South Korea’s National Bureau of Statistics said today that the consumer price index (CPI) for March 2022 rose more than 3% for the sixth consecutive month since October last year.
The CPI rose 4.1% in March from a year earlier to 106.06, the fastest growth rate since December in more than 10 years.
Prices for manufactured goods increased by 31.2% y-o-y in March due to the increase in crude oil prices on the world market. Prices for private sector services increased by 4.4% in March, prices for government services increased by 0.6%, and prices for agriculture, livestock, and fisheries increased by 0.4% year-on-year in March.
The core CPI, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose 3.3%t y-o-y. This is the strongest increase since December 2011.
South Korea’s central bank said today that foreign exchange reserves declined in March as the value of non-USD asset conversion fell.
South Korea’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $457.81 billion at the end of March, down $3.96 billion from February.
Underlying the decline in foreign exchange reserves is a fall in the value of assets not converted into USD. The dollar index, which measures the development of the dollar against six major currencies in a basket of currencies, rose by 1.2% in March.
South Korea’s forex reserves consist of securities worth $412.1 billion, deposits worth $228.1 billion, special drawing rights (SDRs) worth $154.2 billion, contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) worth $4.58 billion, and gold bullion worth $4.79 billion.
South Korea had the eighth largest foreign exchange reserves in the world at the end of February, unchanged from January.