Korean consumer prices fell 0.2 percent in July while the core index rose 0.4 percent, and two lines worth 8 percent of the basket did the falling
Korean consumer prices fell last month.
The consumer price index for July stood at 119.77 against a 2020 base of 100, down 0.2 percent from June, according to the release the Ministry of Data and Statistics timed for 08.00 on Tuesday in Seoul. Measured against July last year the index was up 2.8 percent, down from 3.2 percent in June. It is the first monthly fall since November last year, on the series printed in the release.
The core index went the other way.
The measure excluding food and energy rose 0.4 percent on the month and 2.6 percent on the year, which is the highest year-on-year reading in the thirteen months the release prints. The narrower Korean measure, which strips out petroleum and agricultural products other than grain, rose 0.1 percent and 2.5 percent.
Two lines out of a thousand points
Petroleum products fell 5.5 percent on the month. Electricity, gas and water fell 5.1 percent. Between them those two categories carry 80.3 of the 1,000 weighting points in the basket, and the release puts their combined contribution to the monthly change at 0.45 percentage points downward, against a total decline of 0.19 percentage points for the index as a whole.
Everything else, taken together, pushed up. Services rose 0.3 percent on the month and contributed 0.19 points. Personal services rose 0.5 percent, and the part of that outside restaurant meals rose 0.7 percent on the month and 4.1 percent on the year.
The annual picture has not changed as much as the monthly one. Petroleum is still 15.5 percent dearer than a year ago and supplied 0.60 of the 2.78 percentage points by which the index rose. Transport, the expenditure category that carries fuel, was up 7.7 percent, the fastest of the twelve categories the release breaks out.
Fruit and vegetables down, fish up
The fresh food index fell 2.3 percent on the year. Fresh vegetables were 4.3 percent cheaper and fresh fruit 4.7 percent cheaper than in July last year. Fresh fish and shellfish were 4.4 percent dearer.
The living-necessities index, built from the 144 items bought most often, fell 0.8 percent on the month and rose 2.5 percent on the year. Within it, food rose 1.6 percent over the year and everything that is not food rose 3.2 percent.
One note on coverage sits at the front of the document. From this month the release publishes a new integrated administrative area created on 1 July, with the two former regional series retained beneath it.
