Consumer price inflation is slowing, but higher priced items are spreading rapidly. Overall inflation is slowing, but inflation continues from food to clothing.
According to the Consumer Price Index from the Office for National Statistics on the 23rd, the price of clothing and footwear in March increased by 6.1% compared to a year ago. This is the highest in 11 years and 4 months since November 2011 (6.3%).
Clothing and footwear prices showed a low rate of increase in the range of 0-1% between April 2018 (2.3%) and the spread of Corona 19. In April-June 2019, it decreased by 0.1-0.2%.
However, from November 2021 (1.4%), when the gradual daily recovery began, the price of clothing and footwear began to rise. In May last year, the month after the distance was fully lifted, the rate of increase was in the 3% range, in November last year it was in the 5% range, and last month it soared to the 6% range.
This is in contrast to the gradual slowdown in the consumer price inflation rate of 4.2% this month. Although overall inflation is slowing, inflation is spreading to a number of items.
According to the National Statistics Portal (KOSIS) of the National Statistical Office on the 10th, out of 458 consumer price items last month, 395 items increased in price compared to the same month last year, accounting for 86.2%. On the other hand, in July last year, the number of items whose price increased was 383 (83.6%).
During the same period, the overall inflation rate (6.3% in July last year → 4.2% in March this month) fell by 2.1 percentage points, but the number of items whose prices rose increased. In a situation where upward pressure on prices, which started on the supply side of oil and grains, is spreading to all items, even clothes are wobbling.
Looking at the price of clothing and footwear per item, the rate of increase was particularly high for children’s and babies’ clothing (9.6%) and casual clothing (6.9%). Prices for women’s clothing rose 5.4%, men’s clothing prices rose 3.6%, and clothing accessories and other clothing rose 3.8%. Laundry and repair and rental prices rose by 12.2%. The inflation rate for the price of shoes was 5.9%.
The core inflation rate (excluding agricultural products and oil), which shows the basic trend of prices, is 4.8%, continuing the same high trend as the previous month (4.8%). This is higher than the general consumer price index (4.2%). This is the first time in two years since January 2021 that the core inflation rate has been higher.
