Vice Ministers' Meeting on Price Trends and Measures for Rapid Recovery from Weather Damage
On August 5, Lee Hyungil, the First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance, urged, "All relevant ministries should make every effort to ensure swift recovery from the damage caused by the heavy rainfall, and take thorough measures to manage each item so that the price and supply volatility of agricultural, livestock, and fisheries products due to adverse weather conditions is minimized."
On this day, Vice Minister Lee presided over a Vice Ministers' Meeting on Prices at the Government Complex Seoul in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where he discussed the July consumer price trends, the status of response to damage to agricultural, livestock, and fisheries products from heavy rain and heat waves, and the price trends of various food items.
Vice Minister Lee stated, "The consumer price inflation rate for July recorded a slightly lower 2.1% compared to June, due to falling petroleum prices and a slowdown in the rise of processed food prices." He added, "However, prices for certain items remain high due to weather effects, continuing to burden ordinary citizens."
He also noted, "After recent heavy rains and heat waves, additional downpours have further increased the difficulties faced by farmers and fishermen.""All relevant ministries should make every effort to ensure swift recovery from the damage,"and he requested thorough management of each item to minimize the price and supply volatility of agricultural, livestock, and fisheries products.
To eradicate price gouging during the vacation season, he called for active response led by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Each ministry also decided to strengthen efforts to ease the burden of summer food prices while responding to heavy rain. For cabbage, the government will double the release volume of available stock compared to the previous month (from a daily average of 50-150 tons in July to 200-300 tons in August), and increase the supply of reserve seedlings by 500,000 (from 2.5 million to 3 million).
Hyungil Lee, Vice Minister of Economy and Finance, is presiding over the 52nd Price-Related Vice Ministers' Meeting held on the morning of the 5th at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, delivering opening remarks.
In addition, the government will continue to provide discount support for items heavily affected by heat waves and heavy rain, such as watermelon. For rice, whose consumer price has recently risen, a separate event will be held in cooperation with distributors to offer a 3,000 won discount per 20kg. For Korean beef (Hanwoo), supply this month will be maintained at over 30% higher than usual through incentives for shipment. For chicken, the domestic stocking volume will continue to be expanded.
To minimize the gap in imported chicken, 4,000 tons of Thai chicken were imported by the end of last month, and Brazilian chicken will be brought in without delay starting mid-August. For eggs, the Livestock Products Quality Evaluation Institute will announce weekly supply and demand trends to help stabilize farm prices.
For seafood, up to a 50% discount event will be held until August 21 in cooperation with 44 online and offline distributors. The items include popular fish such as mackerel and hairtail, as well as dried seaweed, abalone, eel, flatfish, and rockfish, which are major aquaculture products.
For processed foods, discount events will continue this month, following last month, focusing on high-demand items such as ramen and snacks, led by food and distribution companies. To ease the perceived burden of dining out, since July 25, the criteria for issuing consumption coupons for public delivery apps have been relaxed, and a 10,000 won coupon is being provided without limit on the number of times when two or more orders of at least 20,000 won each are made through public delivery apps.
Meanwhile, since July 1, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local governments, and the private sector have been jointly conducting on-site inspections of food and lodging prices at vacation spots, as well as the usage fees for beach resort items. They are focusing on cracking down on excessive price increases, failure to display prices, and price fixing through collusion, and plan to respond strictly in accordance with relevant laws if any violations are found.
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