SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s annual consumer inflation softened in August for the first time in seven months and by a greater degree than expectations, government data showed on Friday.
The consumer price index (CPI) rose 5.7% in August from the same month a year ago, according to the Statistics Korea data, slower than 6.3% in July and 6.1% tipped in a Reuters poll of economists.
It was the first time for the annual rate to soften since January and the slowest in three months.
The CPI declined 0.1% on a monthly basis, falling for the first time since November 2020 and also lower than a 0.3% rise seen in the survey.
(Reporting by Jihoon Lee; Editing by Chris Reese)
