S. Korea to sharply increase imports of eggs to stabilize prices

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Tuesday the country will sharply increase imports of eggs in August and September in a bid to help stabilize high prices amid a pick-up in consumer inflation.

The country plans to bring in 100 million eggs in August and September, respectively, more than the 70 million eggs imported in June, according to the finance ministry.

South Korea brought in 144 million eggs between January and May to ease the supply shortage caused by the outbreak of bird flu here.

High-flying prices of eggs have not shown signs of letting up even as the country has reported no cases of the highly pathogenic bird flu since April.

Hong also said the government will mobilize all policy means to increase the supply of agricultural products ahead of the Chuseok fall harvest holiday slated for September.

The country's consumer prices grew more than 2 percent for the fourth straight month in July on higher prices of farm and oil products, indicating that inflationary pressure is building up amid an economic recovery.

The consumer prices grew 2.6 percent in July from a year earlier, accelerating from a 2.4 percent on-year gain, according to the statistics agency.

The July inflation rate was higher than the government's previous estimate as it had expected consumer prices to stay around 2 percent.

The finance ministry said upside risks to inflation linger as weather conditions could worsen due to heat waves and typhoons, and oil prices may further rise.

The Bank of Korea forecast the country's consumer prices to rise 1.8 percent this year, lower than the bank's inflation target of 2 percent. (Yonhap)