Consumer prices rise 3.6 percent in 2023

A supermarket in downtown Seoul [YONHAP]

Korea's consumer prices rose 3.6 percent on-year in 2023 as the nation continues to grapple with elevated inflationary pressures in 2023, according to data by Statistics Korea.

This marks a deceleration from the 5.1 percent surge observed in 2022, a year that witnessed the highest inflation since 1998 when consumer prices skyrocketed by 7.5 percent in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.

Excluding the 2022 figure, this year's price growth was the steepest since 2011, when consumer inflation spiked by 4 percent.

In December, consumer prices rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive month that the prices have stayed above the 3 percent level, though the growth has slowed down for two months in a row.

The on-year price growth fell below 4 percent in April for the first time in more than a year and had been on a constant decline to fall to a 25-month low of 2.3 percent in July.

But the figure rose to 3.4 percent in August, 3.7 percent in September and 3.8 percent in October before falling to 3.3 percent in November due mainly to high oil costs and rising prices of some farm goods.

The government has said that inflationary pressure is forecast to ease at a slower pace than previously expected though the country is expected to reach its target rate of 2 percent by around the end of 2024.

The Bank of Korea has jacked up its inflation forecast for next year to 2.6 percent from its earlier estimate of 2.4 percent.

BY SEO JI-EUN, YONHAP [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]