Consumer price inflation soared to the 5% level for the first time in 14 years.



Amid the continued disruption of the global supply chain, energy, food and service prices are rising in all directions as consumption demand, which has been suppressed by COVID-19, is recovering.



According to the announcement by the National Statistical Office today (3rd), the consumer price index in May was 107.56 (2020=100), up 5.4% from the same month last year.



The increase rate is the highest in 13 years and 9 months since August 2008 (5.6%).



It is the first time since September 2008 (5.1%) that the consumer price inflation rate rose to the 5% level.



The consumer price inflation rate was only 0.9% in January of last year, but has steadily risen since then, entering the 3% range in October last year (3.2%), and then soaring to the 4% range in March (4.1%) and April (4.8%) of this year. .



Last month, the increase expanded by 0.6 percentage points from the previous month (4.8%), centering on livestock products, personal services, and industrial products.



By item, industrial products including petroleum products (34.8%) and processed foods (7.6%) rose 8.3% from a year ago.



Livestock products increased by 4.2% led by livestock products (12.1%), and the increase was larger than the previous month (1.9%).



Electricity, gas and water prices rose 9.6% from a year ago due to the effect of higher electricity rates from April.



For personal service, both eating out (7.4%) and eating out (3.5%) rose 5.1%.



This is the highest level since December 2008 (5.4%).



Rent rose 2.0% and public services rose 0.7%, respectively.



The price index of living, which is mainly composed of items that are frequently purchased and is closer to the perceived price, rose 6.7%, recording the largest increase since July 2008 (7.1%).



The core price index (excluding agricultural products and petroleum products), which shows the key price trend, rose 4.1%, the highest since April 2009 (4.2%).



Eo Woon-seon, director of economic trend statistics at Statistics Korea, said, "While prices for industrial products such as petroleum and processed foods and personal services continued to rise, the range of rises including prices for livestock and fishery products also expanded."