South Korea to Include Maratang, AI Subscriptions in Consumer Price Index

South Korea is updating its consumer price index (CPI) for 2025 to better reflect current consumption patterns, with new items like smartwatches, electric vehicle charging fees, and AI subscription services being added. The adjustments aim to enhance the index's relevance and accuracy in measuring inflation.

Maratang, a popular spicy hot pot dish, and salads will be newly included to account for the rise in dining out. The category for pork will be split into domestic and imported to provide more granular data. Other additions include meal kits and modular storage furniture. Conversely, items with declining usage or difficult measurement, such as peanuts, balloon flowers, bracken, butane gas, sinks, moisture absorbers, black boxes, and lunch boxes, will be removed.

Reflecting the digital shift, AI subscription fees will be incorporated into a new 'software subscription fee' category, alongside online shopping subscriptions and cloud storage fees. The index will also distinguish between hybrid and electric passenger cars and separate online game usage fees from streaming service fees. Traditional items like kimchi stew with rice and soybean paste stew with rice will be consolidated into a single 'stew with rice' category, and bathhouse fees will be combined with general bathing fees.

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We have enhanced the real-world relevance of the price index by reflecting the public's digital life, including the use of artificial intelligence.

Changes are also being made to reflect shifts in public services and education. Due to the expansion of free childcare and education, kindergarten tuition fees, school supplementary education costs, childcare facility usage fees, and conversational learning materials will be excluded. However, fees for infant and toddler classes will be added. The index will also remove physical USB drives from its list of tracked items.

Adjustments to the weighting of different spending categories are also significant. The 'Housing, Water, Electricity, and Fuel' category will see its weight increase by 9.6 points to 181.2 out of 1000, primarily due to rising housing rents. The 'Transportation and Communication' category's weight will decrease by 6.3 points to 104.4, influenced by a projected stabilization of oil prices and increased adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles, reducing the proportion of household spending on gasoline.

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The proposed selection of representative items will be finalized after gathering public opinion until the 17th.