By Kwanwoo Jun
South Korea’s headline inflation eased after three consecutive months of accelerating but still stayed well above the central bank’s 2% target.
The benchmark consumer-price index rose 3.3% from a year earlier in November, following the previous month’s 3.8% increase, the country’s statistics office said Tuesday. A market consensus forecast had been for a 3.6% gain in November.
Lower oil and energy prices largely led price growth to ease in November, data from the office showed.
Compared with the prior month, the index fell 0.6% in November after a 0.3% rise in October.
Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, rose 3.0% from a year ago and remained unchanged from a month earlier in November. That had gained 3.2% on year and 0.3% on month in October.
The Bank of Korea last month revised up its inflation forecasts for this year and the next, noting that inflation still remained sticky in the country.
The central bank now expects inflation to average 3.6% in 2023 and 2.6% in 2024, up from its earlier estimates of 3.5% and 2.4%, respectively.
The bank signals that it will hold its base rate steady at 3.50% for a long period before starting to ease policy.
Write to Kwanwoo Jun at [email protected]
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