[Breaking] August Consumer Prices Rise 3.1%, Returning to the 3% Range

[Financial News] The year-on-year increase in consumer prices returned to the 3% range in August after two months. Public-service prices posted their largest increase in 25 years, driven by a base effect from mobile-phone fee reductions in August last year.
According to the August Consumer Price Trends released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on the 2nd, the consumer price index rose 3.1% last month from a year earlier.
Consumer price inflation stood at 3.1% in May and 3.2% in June before slowing to 2.8% in July. It returned to the 3% range in August.
Public services drove the acceleration. Public-service prices rose 6.5% year on year in August, marking their largest increase in 25 years since August 2001, when they rose 7.2%. They contributed 0.72 percentage points to the overall consumer price increase.
Mobile-phone charges surged 26.7%. The increase reflected a base effect stemming from the sharp decline in mobile-phone charges after telecommunications fee reductions in August last year.
Lee Doo-won, Director General for Economic Trend Statistics Review at the Ministry of Data and Statistics, explained, "The base effect from mobile-phone fee reductions last August had a significant impact. The contribution of telecommunications fees to inflation was 0.58 percentage points, so excluding telecommunications fees, the inflation rate appears to have been around 2.5%."
Petroleum product prices also continued to rise sharply. They increased 14.2% year on year in August. Although the increase slowed from 15.5% in July, the rate remained in the double digits. By product, diesel prices rose 19.6% and gasoline prices increased 11.5%.
Core inflation, which reflects underlying price trends, also accelerated. The index excluding food and energy rose 3.4% year on year, the highest increase since May 2023. The index excluding agricultural products and petroleum products also rose 3.1%, remaining in the 3% range.
[email protected] Kim Chan-mi Reporter