Government Works to Stabilize Prices Ahead of Chuseok

Deputy Prime Minister Kyungho Choo presided over a meeting on price stabilization1 at the Government-Complex, Seoul on September 15 to review recent prices trends and discuss future response plans.

The following is key messages of DPM Choo’s remarks.

The government is making all-out efforts to achieve consumer price stability ahead of Chuseok holidays.

Aiming to maintain the average prices of high-demand items in Chuseok at more than 5% lower than that of last year, related ministries are making comprehensive efforts by supplying a record amount of 160,000 tons of high-demand items and injecting a total of 67.0 billion won for discounts on agricultural, livestock, and fishery products.

Thanks to such policy efforts, the average prices of 20 high-demand items is 6.0% lower than those of the previous year. The cost of Chuseok table settings, consisting of 28 items, also remained 4.8% lower compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, although the overall price level has continued to stabilize on a downward trend this year, it temporarily rose 3.4% in August, in the wake of rising global oil prices and increased agricultural prices resulting from heatwaves and heavy rainfalls.

As core inflation, which excludes highly volatile items such as food and energy, remains steady, prices are predicted to return to a stable path after October.

However, uncertainties still persist, such as the rise in global oil prices, which requires the government to stay vigilant at all times.

To this end, the government will make pan-governmental efforts to achieve price stabilization in an expeditious manner; it will strengthen policy capabilities to stabilize prices of agricultural and fisheries products, which are directly linked to the consumer prices, as well as oil prices. The government will also strive to properly manage local public utilities bills.