Steeper Increase in Jeonse Prices... 0.8% Rise in November Alone (Update)

November Consumer Price Trends

Jeonse Prices Up 0.8% YoY... Highest Increase in 23 Months
Consumer Prices Rise 0.6%... Still a Low Inflation Environment

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Last month, the rate of increase in Jeonse prices became steeper. Rising 0.8%, it recorded the highest increase in 23 months since December 2018.

According to the 'November Consumer Price Trends' released by Statistics Korea on the 2nd, the Consumer Price Index stood at 105.50 (2015=100), up 0.6% compared to the same month last year. The rate of increase was 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous month but remained in the 0% range for two consecutive months.

The core inflation rate, which excludes seasonal factors and temporary shocks, represented by the agricultural products and petroleum excluded index (core inflation), rose 1.0% compared to the same month last year.

Among a total of 460 items, the living cost index, compiled from 141 items with high purchase frequency and expenditure weight that are sensitive to price changes, fell 0.1% compared to the same month last year. This was due to food prices rising 3.7% while non-food items fell 2.3%.

The fresh food index increased 13.1% compared to the same month last year. Fresh fruits rose 25.1%, while fresh fish and fresh vegetables increased by 7.1% and 7.0%, respectively.

By expenditure purpose, compared to the same month last year, food and non-alcoholic beverages (6.9%), food services and accommodation (1.0%), other goods and services (2.1%), health (1.5%), clothing and footwear (0.6%), housing, water, electricity, and fuel (0.1%), and household goods and household services (0.2%) increased. Alcohol and tobacco remained unchanged, while recreation and culture (-0.5%), communication (-1.6%), education (-2.1%), and transportation (-4.3%) decreased.

By item nature, rent rose 0.6% compared to the same month last year, causing service prices to increase by 0.4%. The rent increase rate is the highest since June 2018 (0.6%). In particular, Jeonse prices jumped 0.8%, marking the highest increase in 23 months since December 2018, when it rose 0.9%.