South Korea’s consumer prices rise 3.1% in August, returning to 3% range after two months

South Korea’s consumer inflation returned to the 3% range in August, with prices rising 3.1% from a year earlier after reaching 2.8% in July. Prices also increased 0.2% from the previous month.

The consumer price index stood at 120.05, according to the National Data Office’s August consumer price trends released on Sept. 2. Inflation had reached 3.1% in May and 3.2% in June before easing in July.

The latest figure was lifted by a base effect from last year, when some telecommunications companies temporarily discounted mobile-phone charges. Lee Doo-won, director of the office’s economic trends statistics review, said the effect accounted for roughly 0.58 percentage points.

“Excluding that special factor, you can view this month’s inflation rate as roughly 2.5%,” Lee said at a briefing.

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Excluding that special factor, you can view this month’s inflation rate as roughly 2.5%.