SEOUL, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government on Thursday revised up this year's inflation outlook amid surging commodity prices and domestic demand recovery.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance set its 2022 outlook for consumer price inflation at 4.7 percent, sharply up from the 2.2 percent estimated six months earlier.
The government outlook was higher than inflation forecasts of 4.5 percent from the Bank of Korea (BOK), 4.2 percent from the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI), and 4.0 percent from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) upgraded its 2022 inflation outlook for South Korea from the previous 2.1 percent to 4.8 percent last week.
The finance ministry attributed the soaring inflation to supply-side factors, such as the surge in global raw materials prices, as well as the domestic demand recovery coming from the alleviated COVID-19 pandemic.
The consumer price index (CPI) continued to rise faster this year, with the gains of 3.6 percent in January, 3.7 percent in February, 4.1 percent in March, 4.8 percent in April, and 5.4 percent in May each on a yearly basis.
The finance ministry expected the CPI to increase by 3.0 percent in 2023. ■