Electricity, gas and water prices increased by 28.4% compared to a year ago.
According to the ‘Consumer Price Trends for February’ released by the Office for National Statistics on the 6th, the consumer price index last month rose by 4.8% from the same month last year. The rate of increase decreased by 0.4 percentage points from the previous month (5.2%). This is the first time in 10 months that the inflation rate, which had been rising dramatically since April last year (4.8%), recorded a level of 4%.
However, electricity, gas and water prices increased by 28.4% over the same period. It marked the highest rate of increase since 2010, when related statistics began to be collected. Electricity rates rose by 29.5%, city gas rates by 36.2%, and district heating costs by 34.0%. Overall, inflation appears to be slowing, but electricity, gas and water appear to be continuing their upward march following public utility rate hikes.
Personal service growth rate was 5.7%, showing a slowdown compared to the previous month (5.9%), but expenses such as eating out (7.5%) and cafeteria meals (6.4%) were above average. Personal services other than eating out accounted for 4.4%.
Cost of living rose 0.4% from the previous month and 5.5% from the same month last year. Among them, food prices are expected to increase by 0.6% month-on-month and 6.7% year-on-year, respectively.
In terms of expenditure by purpose, compared to the same month last year, housing, water, electricity and fuel (7.7%), food and accommodation (7.4%), food and non-alcoholic drinks (5.8%) , other products and services (6.9%), and housekeeping household goods (6.0%), clothing and footwear (5.8%), entertainment and culture (4.3%), health (1.5%), education (1.8%), communication (1.1%), transport (0.4%), alcohol and tobacco (2.1%) and all of them rose.
In terms of consumer price trends by region, Gangwon rose the most with 5.3%. Gwangju · Jeonbuk 5.1%, Chungbuk · Chungnam · Gyeongbuk 5.0%, Jeonnam 4.9%, Seoul · Daegu · Gyeonggi · Gyeongnam 4.8%, Incheon · Ulsan · Jeju 4.7%, Busan · Daejeon · Sejong 4.6%.
