Processed Foods and Dining Out Drive Up Inflation... October Consumer Prices Rise 2.8%

[Anchor]

Consumer prices rose 2.8% last month compared to a year ago. While prices for agricultural, livestock, and fishery products decreased, increases in petroleum, processed foods, and dining out have added to the burden on living costs.

Reporter Eom Minjae has the details.

[Reporter]

Last month's consumer price inflation rate stood at 2.8%, hovering around the 3% range for half a year since May.

Food items drove the upward trend.

Processed food prices increased 2.9% from a year ago.

The growth expanded from 2.1% in September, marking the highest rate in 11 months.

This was driven by factory price hikes and the return to regular prices after Chuseok holiday discounts.

Dining-out prices also rose 2.9%, recording the highest increase rate since February of this year.

As shipments of fish declined due to high temperatures during the summer, prices for raw fish jumped 5.9%, increasing the burden of eating out.

Petroleum prices surged 14.9%, pushing up overall inflation by 0.56 percentage points.

Diesel prices rose 19.7% and gasoline prices went up 11.6%.

[Lee Doo-won / Director of Economic Trends Statistics Bureau, Statistics Korea : Given that petroleum prices carry a heavy weight, petroleum price increases appeared to have contributed to the rise in processed food inflation, while outside of food, the sharp rise in petroleum was the main cause of the overall increase.]

On the other hand, agricultural, livestock, and fishery products fell 1.7%, declining for three consecutive months.

Ahead of the Kimjang (kimchi-making) season, napa cabbage prices dropped 11.8% and young summer radish fell 30.6%.

However, radish prices rose 12.5% due to reduced shipments.

The average inflation rate from January to October this year stood at 2.7%, exceeding the government's annual forecast of 2.6%.

The government cited developments in the Middle East war as the biggest uncertainty.

The Bank of Korea projected that next month's inflation rate would also continue in the upper 2% range.

(Video Editing: Kim Jin-won)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.