10월 소비자물가 0.1% 상승 그쳐…통신비 지원 영향

South Korea's consumer price inflation for last month stayed barely above zero.
That was due in part to the government's phone bill subsidies, which were part of this year's fourth supplementary budget.
Kim Sung-min has the details.
South Korea's consumer inflation was barely above zero last month,... largely pulled down by the government's assistance for phone bills.
According to Statistics Korea on Tuesday, last month's consumer price index edged up point-one percent from the previous year.
That is the slowest growth since June when inflation remained flat.
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.
This also led the core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, to drop by point-3 percent,... its biggest fall since 1999.
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.
Agriculture, livestock and fishery product prices rose 13-point-3 percent, with vegetable prices surging more than 20 percent.
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.
With the plummeting global oil prices however, industrial product prices were down one percent.
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.
Kim Sung-min, Arirang News.