Kim Woong, Vice Governor of the Bank of Korea, said on the 2nd, "The inflation rate in September is expected to rise to around 2% as temporary factors for the decline disappear."
Vice Governor Kim noted this during an inflation situation inspection meeting held at the Bank of Korea that morning.
According to the consumer price trends reported by the Statistics Korea, last month's consumer price index was 116.45 (2020=100), which is an increase of 1.7% compared to the same period last year. The increase rate dropped by 0.4 percentage points (p) from the previous month, marking the smallest rise since November of last year (1.5%).
However, this was influenced by a substantial decrease in public service prices due to a 50% discount on fees from some telecommunications companies, while the prices of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products rose by the largest margin in 1 year and 2 months (4.8% compared to the previous year).
Vice Governor Kim said, "Although consumer prices in August saw a significant rise in agricultural, livestock, and fishery product prices due to heavy rain and heat waves, the previously expected rise was mitigated by temporary discounts on telecommunications fees."
He added, "Going forward, consumer prices are expected to maintain an upward trend of around 2% considering the pressure of low demand and stable international oil prices, despite the rise in prices of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products."