[Monitor] Consumer prices continue to surge

Last month‘s consumer prices surged by 2 percent compared to the same month in the previous year, with livestock products showing the biggest increase at 11.6 percent, data by Statistics Korea showed Thursday.

Consumer prices have been hovering around 2 percent since the first month of this year due to a sharp gain in oil prices. The latest upward trend in prices is also largely driven by higher meat and egg prices, with eggs surging 67.9 percent in the aftermath of an outbreak of avian influenza. Pork prices also jumped 12.2 percent on-year on rising demand in the spring season.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and food prices, increased 1.5 percent last month on-year.