On April 5, local time, according to data from South Korea’s statistics department, South Korea’s consumer price index (CPI) rose by more than 4% year-on-year in March, reaching a new high since December 2011.
The analysis pointed out that the continued rise in prices is related to the increase in demand pressure in the process of economic recovery and the rise in global oil prices caused by the recent tension in Ukraine.
Specifically, the main force of price increase in March was petroleum industrial products and service industries such as catering.
The price of petroleum products rose 31.2% in March, among which gasoline rose 27.4%, diesel rose 37.9%, and LPG for vehicles rose 20.4%. The average increase continued to expand compared with the previous month's 19.4%.
In terms of monthly increase, the price increase of petroleum products has exceeded 30% again after a lapse of 4 months since 35.5% in November 2021.
Before November last year, the last time the price of petroleum products rose by more than 30% was in July 2008.
In addition to petroleum products, the prices of processed food such as bread also rose sharply. In March, the price of processed food rose by 6.4%, and the price of agricultural and sideline products rose by 0.4%, a slowdown in the growth rate.
On the other hand, prices in the catering industry rose by 6.6%, the largest increase since April 1998.
(Headquarters reporter Tang Xin)