Seoul, – South Korea has launched a government-wide special scheme on the management of prices of key food and other items to bring inflation under control.
The Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance said in a statement that the Vice ministers of all government ministries are supposed to be in charge of monitoring prices of items concerned and implementing necessary countermeasures in a swift manner, while some ministries had been in charge of checking prices, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
The beefed-up response came as the country is struggling with stubbornly high inflation. Overall consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, accelerated in October for the third consecutive month to rise 3.8% on-year.
Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho has said that prices have been and are expected to ease at a slower-than-expected pace amid external uncertainties and unfavorable weather conditions, and vowed to make all-out efforts to stamp out inflation.
Inflation has generally been moderating as the on-year price growth fell below 4% in April for the first time in more than a year and had been steadily decreasing to fall to a 25-month low of 2.3% in July.
But the figure rose to 3.4% in August and further to 3.7% the following month due to high oil costs and rising prices of some farm goods.
The Bank of Korea has said that inflationary pressure is expected to stay over 3% through the end of this year, higher than its target rate of 2%.
Source: Qatar News Agency