S. Korea ranks No. 2 in OECD for food inflation

South Korea's food prices climbed the second most on-year among the organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members in December, data showed Thursday.

Food prices in South Korea jumped 10.6 percent in December from a year earlier, higher than the OECD average of 2.6 percent, according to the data by the OECD.

Among the 33 tallied countries, Estonia topped the list at 12.2 percent. Hungary and Turkey followed with 7.6 percent and 7 percent, respectively, the data showed.

The overall consumer inflation rate in the same month came to 3.5 percent in South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, higher than the OECD average of 2.1 percent, the data said.

Seoul has been stepping up efforts to fight mounting inflationary pressure. In January, the Bank of Korea (BOK) raised the key interest rate by 0.25 percentage point to 2.75 percent, the third rate hike since July.

(Yonhap News)