South Korea’s consumer prices rose 5.4 percent in May from a year earlier, fueling worries about surging inflation, statistical office data showed.
The consumer price index (CPI) stood at 107.56 in May, up 5.4 percent from the same month of last year, according to Statistics Korea. It marked the fastest increase in almost 14 years since August 2008. Price for industrial products, including oil products, advanced 8.3 percent in May from a year earlier.
Oil products price spiked 34.8 percent, and processed food price gained 7.6 percent last month. Price for agricultural, livestock and fishery products picked up 4.2 percent in May from a year earlier, after rising 1.9 percent the previous month.—Xinhua
