South Korea’s Inflation Eases But Stays Sticky
Headline inflation moderated last month but remained above the central bank’s 2% target, underscoring the challenge of taming price pressures stoked by the energy shock and artificial-intelligence boom.
South Korea's inflation eased slightly in September, with the consumer price index growing 2.9% year-on-year, according to data from Statistics Korea. This was a decrease from the 3.1% growth in the prior month. The easing inflation was driven by cooler agricultural goods and alcohol prices.
However, prices for services, gas and water, and fuel remained high. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 2.8% year-on-year and fell 0.1% month-on-month. According to the WSJ Economy, headline inflation remained above the central bank's 2% target.
The Bank of Korea has hiked rates twice this year, by a cumulative 50 basis points, and warned of more such moves as it tries to cool sticky inflation. Investing.com reports that the trend of high inflation could attract more interest rate hikes from the central bank.
Brief written by urgent.news from WSJ Economy, Investing.com — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
