South Korea's Inflation Could Accelerate in August, BOK Says

By Kwanwoo Jun

South Korea's consumer inflation could accelerate in August, after easing in July, according to the country's central bank.

This would partly be due to the base effect from telecommunication fee discounts offered by some local mobile carriers a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday.

The BOK vowed to closely monitor developments related to inflation as core inflation--which strips out volatile food and fuel prices--is expected to remain elevated owning to increases in costs and strengthening demand.

Despite uncertainty over the Middle East conflict and oil prices, government price-stabilization measures such as a cap on retail fuel prices are expected to continue to help contain consumer prices, the BOK added.

The government earlier Tuesday announced that Korea's headline inflation moderated in July after reaching a 30-month high in June, partly because government measures helped restrain fuel and electricity prices.

Price pressures persisted, however, with inflation remaining above the central bank's 2% target.

The benchmark consumer-price index rose 2.8% in July from a year earlier, slowing from the 3.2% rise in June--the fastest pace since December 2023.

Core CPI rose 2.6% on year in July. The measure, which policymakers closely watch as a gauge of underlying inflation, has remained above 2% since September 2025 and has trended higher in recent months.

-- Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2026 21:32 ET (01:32 GMT)