South Korea Inflation Rate

Last Release

Dec 31, 2024

Actual

1.9

Units In

1.5

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

Feb 02, 2025

Time to Release

1 Months 1 Days 22 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
32.5 Oct 1980	-0.4 Sep 2019	6.81 %	1966-2024	Statistics Korea

In South Korea, the most important categories in the consumer price index are Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels (17 percent of total weight) and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (13.6 percent of total weight). Others include Restaurants and hotels (12 percent); Education (11.4 percent); Transportation (10.9 percent); Health (7.3 percent); and Clothing and footwear (6.2 percent). The components with the least weight are Communication at 5.8 percent; Miscellaneous goods and services at 5.4 percent; Recreation and culture at 5.3 percent; Furnishings, household equipment and routine maintenance at 3.8 percent; and Alcoholic beverages and tobacco at 1.24 percent.

Latest Updates

South Korea's annual inflation rate increased to 1.9% in December 2024, up from 1.5% in November, surpassing the market's expectations of 1.7%. It marked the highest inflation rate since August, with food prices rising the most in five months (2.5% vs 1.3%) and transport prices rebounding (1.3% vs -1.1%). However, inflation remained below the central bank's 2% target for the 4th consecutive month. Last month, the Bank of Korea unexpectedly reduced its benchmark rate by 25 bps to 3%, marking the first instance of back-to-back rate cuts since 2009. The central bank revised its inflation projections for 2024 and 2025, lowering them to 2.3% and 1.9%, respectively, down from previous forecasts of 2.5% and 2.1%. Last week, the BOK announced it would lower interest rates further next year to ease downward pressure on economic growth. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.4% in December, rebounding from a 0.3% drop in November, above forecasts of a 0.2% rise, and the most in four months.