10월 소비자물가 0.1% 상승 그쳐…통신비 지원 영향<br /><br />South Korea's consumer price inflation for last month stayed barely above zero.<br />That was due in part to the government's phone bill subsidies, which were part of this year's fourth supplementary budget.<br />Kim Sung-min has the details.<br />South Korea's consumer inflation was barely above zero last month,... largely pulled down by the government's assistance for phone bills.<br />According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, last month's consumer price index edged up point-one percent from the previous year.<br />That is the slowest growth since June when inflation remained flat.<br />Statistics Korea said the government's recent subsidies of around 18 U.S. dollars for many mobile phone users caused phone bills to drop by 21-point-7 percent on-year,... pulling down the overall inflation.<br />This also led the core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, to drop by point-3 percent,... its biggest fall since 1999.<br />The price of services dropped by point-8 percent, largely due to the phone bill assistance, but goods prices were up 1-point-3 percent on-year, mainly due to agricultural goods.<br />Agriculture, livestock and fishery product prices rose 13-point-3 percent, with vegetable prices surging more than 20 percent.<br />The pandemic has also kept the demand for home meals high last month which led to prices for food and drink to rise by 8-point-2 percent.<br />With the plummeting global oil prices however, industrial product prices were down one percent.<br />The cost of rent increased by point-5 percent, its biggest rise since 2018, with both monthly rent and key money deposits seeing a surge.<br />Kim Sung-min, Arirang News.<br />
