KOR
▲ A staff member refuels a vehicle at a gas station at a rest area in Gyeonggi-do on the 30th of last month.
Consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in two and a half years last month.
The surge was driven by a sharp increase in petroleum prices, which saw their largest jump in nearly four years due to the impact of the Middle East conflict on global oil prices.
Living costs also experienced their steepest rise in two years and two months.
According to the Consumer Price Trends for June released by the National Data Agency today (July 2), the consumer price index stood at 119.99 (2020=100), up 3.2% from a year ago.
This marks the highest growth rate since December 2023 (3.2%).
The inflation rate, which stood at 2.0% in January and February of this year, expanded to 2.2% in March and 2.6% in April, before hitting the 3% range for two consecutive months, following 3.1% in May and the latest figure for last month.
Rising global oil prices caused by the Middle East conflict pushed consumer prices upward.
Petroleum prices surged by 24.7%, contributing 0.93 percentage points to the overall consumer price increase.
This is the largest increase in petroleum prices since July 2022 (35.2%), during the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
Gasoline (23.1%), diesel (33.7%), and kerosene (23.1%) saw particularly notable price hikes.
Consequently, industrial goods overall rose by 4.4%, pushing up the total inflation rate by 1.47 percentage points.
The living cost index, which reflects perceived inflation based on frequently purchased items, rose by 3.4%.
This represents the largest increase in living costs since April 2024 (3.6%).
The fresh food index, which reflects grocery prices, rose by 0.4%.
The index excluding food and energy, a core inflation indicator used by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), rose by 2.5%.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
