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It is difficult these days to find a price that has not risen, but the price of vegetables in particular jumped a lot last month.
Moreover, this year's Chuseok, when there are many things to buy, is the beginning of next month, which is earlier than usual, so these high prices are even more burdensome.
Reporter Jung Jun-ho visited the vegetable auction market to find out why the price rose so much.
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[203 times for 11,000 won!]
Garak Market in Seoul, where the radish auction is in full swing.
It is crowded with wholesalers who want to buy goods that have just arrived from the Gangwon-do mountain region.
Due to the recent hot weather, high-quality radishes are becoming scarce, and competition is fierce and the winning bid price is rising.
[Park Jun-sik / Radish wholesaler: The high fever is quite severe and the radishes are in bad condition, so the price of good products is skyrocketing compared to last year.] The number of
products that look good but are rotten inside has increased noticeably compared to last year.
The situation is similar for Chinese cabbages that have become 'Geumchu'.
[Park Jong-dol/Chinese cabbage wholesaler: It didn't rain much during the rainy season, but because the days are hot in the mountainous areas, it goes to 32℃ and 34℃.
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As the heat wave and frequent rain continued last month, the 'Fresh Foods Index', which reflects the prices of vegetables, fruits and seafood, increased by 13% compared to the same month last year, of which vegetables rose by 26%.
Enlarging an image
In particular, Chinese cabbage rose 72.7%, cucumber 73%, and spinach 70.6%.
The government said it would supply 6,000 tons of cabbage and 2,000 tons of radishes, which it had stored up to keep prices down for Chuseok.
However, the story of the distribution industry is that there is not much quantity to be supplied to the mart or the market as the quality deteriorates due to long-term storage after purchasing it in the spring.
At least until next month, shipments of major vegetables such as cabbage and radishes are expected to decrease compared to last year, so it seems unlikely that table prices will fall for the time being.
(Video coverage: Hyung Yoon, Video editing: Jiyoung Hwang)
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Reporter Jung Jun-ho who covered this content is here.
Q. When will the inflation rate stop?
[Reporter Jung Jun-ho: The government expects inflation to peak in 2-3 months and then come down.
The main reason is that international oil and raw material prices are showing a calming trend.
If you look at the price of Dubai oil, it has risen to $118 per barrel in June and is currently trading at around $100.
Usually, raw material prices are reflected in Korea with a time lag of about 2-3 months, so it is likely that prices will peak around September or October and then calm down.
Also, since the price has already started to rise in the same month as last month, which is the point of comparison, there is also a base effect.]
Q. How much more will the base interest rate rise?
[Reporter Jung Jun-ho: Korea's interest rate is lower than that of the US right now, and an increase is inevitable to catch inflation.
However, the Bank of Korea believes that the current price flow has not deviated from the previous forecast.
In this situation, Bank of Korea Governor Chang-yong Lee said it would be desirable to raise the base rate by 0.25 percentage points to keep inflation.
If interest rates rise sharply, the interest burden will increase, consumption will contract, and the economy may stagnate.
It seems that these side effects were taken into account.]
Q. Inflation, what are the variables?
[Reporter Jung Jun-ho: The most important variable is the international oil price.
It is questionable whether this has definitely turned to a downtrend.
Oil prices are likely to rise again if a longer Ukraine war leads to increased oil supply chain uncertainty.
The spread of Corona, which is raising international logistics costs, is also a problem.
Domestically, it is also a variable that the price of livestock and fishery products can fluctuate depending on weather conditions.]
▶ 6% rise for two consecutive months…
all items are up