[04/06/2024 01:24]

SEOUL-SABA
South Korea's consumer prices stayed below 3 percent for the second consecutive month in May, but prices of fruits and petroleum products soared over supply issues and unstable global oil prices, data showed Tuesday.

The South Korean News Agency (Yonhap) reported that consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, rose 2.7 percent on-year last month, compared with the 2.9 percent on-year rise a month earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

It marked the second straight month that the price growth slowed down and the figure stayed below 3 percent.

In January, inflation fell below 3 percent for the first time since July 2023 to come to 2.8 percent, but it rose back to 3.1 percent in February and stayed at the same level the following month, according to Yonhap.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, gained 2.2 percent.

The government has said that the country is projected to reach the target rate of 2 percent by around the end of 2024, though prices are forecast to ease at a slower pace than earlier expected.

The finance ministry expects this year's prices to rise 2.6 percent.

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