South Korea’s inflation accelerated to a five-month high in July on rising housing and utilities prices, but remained well below the central bank’s target range, state data showed Thursday.
The consumer price index for July rose 1.4 percent on-year — the highest jump since February, and up 0.2 percent from June, the state-run Statistics Korea said.
The latest figure was still comfortably below the Bank of Korea’s (BOK) target range of 2.5 to 3.5 percent, allowing room for further monetary easing to spur growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
The central bank held its key rate steady at 2.5 percent in June after cutting it by a quarter percentage point in May.
The core Consumer Price Index that excludes volatile fuel and agriculture prices climbed 1.5 percent on-year in July and 0.1 percent from a month ago.
The cost of housing and utility services rose 3.3 percent from a year ago, while travel costs also gained 1.7 percent.
Some key food items including rice and eggs jumped 6.6 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively.
The BOK said in a biannual report Wednesday that it expects inflation to accelerate to 2.1 percent in the second half of this year from an estimated 1.3 percent in the first half, projecting 1.7 percent for the entire year.
S. Korea's July inflation hits 5-month high
