SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s consumer prices in April rose much faster than expected and at their fastest pace in more than 13 years over a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday.
The Statistics Korea data showed the country’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.8% in April from a year before, speeding up from a 4.1% rise in the previous month and far faster than a 4.4% rise tipped in a Reuters survey.
It was the fastest annual growth since October 2008 and stood above the central bank’s 2% target for a 13th consecutive month.
The index rose 0.7% on a monthly basis, compared with a 0.4% rise tipped in the survey, after rising 0.7% in March.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee and Choonsik Yoo; editing by Richard Pullin)
