Korea’s inflation rises below 2% for two straight months in Oct.

Kong Mi-sook, Director of Economic Trend Statistics at Statistics Korea, provides an explanation of the October 2024 consumer price trends at the Sejong Government Complex on the morning of the 5th. (Yonhap)

South Korea’s inflation rose below 2 percent for two straight months in October as petroleum prices fell to the lowest level in nearly four years.

According to data from Statistics Korea on Tuesday, the country‘s consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.3 percent in October from the same month a year ago.

It marks the lowest level since 0.9 percent in January 2021.

The CPI remained in the 2 percent range for five consecutive months before dropping below 2 percent in September.

The core CPI that excludes volatile food and energy factors rose 1.8 percent in October, down by 0.2 percentage point from the previous month.

Prices of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products rose by 1.2 percent, contributing 0.1 percentage point to the overall inflation.

Prices of vegetables, in particular, surged 15.6 percent in October from the same month last year, marking the highest gain since October 2022.

Prices of cabbage and radish, key ingredients for kimchi, surged over 50 percent, with cabbage up 51.5 percent, radish up 52.1 percent, and lettuce up 49.3 percent.

Fruit prices continued to stabilize, led by a 20 percent fall in apples and a 6.5 percent decline in grapes.

Prices of industrial products fell by 0.3 percent year-on-year, the first decline in 44 months.

Oil prices dropped by 10.9 percent, the largest decline in 15 months, pulling down the overall inflation rate by 0.46 percentage point.

Prices of services went up by 2.1 percent, led by a 2.9 percent increase in personal services, contributing 0.96 percentage point to overall inflation.

The fresh food index, which consists of items with large price fluctuations due to weather conditions, rose by 1.6 percent.

Living necessaries price index also rose 1.2 percent.