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A shopper browses groceries at a supermarket in Seoul as consumer prices rose 2.4% year-on-year in October, marking the highest increase in 15 months. / Source: Yonhap News

South Korea’s consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in more than a year in October, driven by higher costs for farm goods, processed foods, and petroleum products.

According to data released on November 4 by the National Data Agency, the consumer price index (CPI) increased 2.4% from a year earlier, marking the sharpest gain since July 2024, when inflation hit 2.6%.

After remaining in the 2% range in June and July, inflation briefly eased to the 1% level in August following the SK Telecom hacking disruption, but climbed back above 2% in September and continued to rise last month.

By category, prices of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products surged 2.3%, adding 0.25 percentage points to the overall inflation rate. Livestock products jumped 5.3%, and fishery goods climbed 5.9%.

Among industrial goods, processed food prices rose 3.5% and petroleum products 4.8%, contributing to the upward trend.

The living cost index, a gauge of perceived inflation, rose 2.5%, while the fresh food index—more sensitive to weather changes—fell 0.8%.

Core inflation, which excludes agricultural and petroleum products, increased 2.5%, while the OECD’s standard core index excluding food and energy rose 2.2%.