The first consumer price index of the new year…apples 71.5% up

2024-02-04 06:34:55

Consumer price index rises 2.6%, 2% level in 5 months
Fresh food index 13.8%↑, of which fruits 29.6%↑
Consumer concerns deepen, government exerts all-out effort to stabilize prices

Photo = Clip Art Korea

The consumer price index of Jeonbuk Autonomous Province, the first of the new year, is stabilizing following suffering from high prices throughout last year, but the perceived prices are still high as the prices of vegetables and fruits soar.

As a result of the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province consumer price trend survey for January 2024 announced by the Jeonju office of Statistics Korea on the 4th, the consumer price index rose 2.6% compared to the same month of the previous year. After recording 2.9% in August last year, it slowed to the 2% range in 5 months.

The increase rate of the living price index, which is composed mainly of items that consumers frequently purchase, which is close to perceived prices, recorded 3.0%, and the increase rate of the fresh food index, which is close to shopping cart prices, recorded 13.8%.

Among the living price index, food was up 4.9% compared to the same month of the previous year, non-food was up 1.8%, living price index including monthly rent was up 2.7%, and among the fresh food index, fresh fish and shellfish was up 2.1%, fresh vegetables were up 6.7%, and fresh fruits were up 6.7% compared to the same month of the previous year. It rose 29.6%. The item that showed the highest rate of increase in the Living Price and Shinseok Food Index is apples.

Apples rose 71.5% compared to the same month last year, having the greatest impact on the rate of increase in fresh fruit among the consumer price index. As of the 2nd, the price of apples (Fuji, 10) traded at the traditional market in Jeonju is 35,500 won, or 3,550 won per piece. Considering that it was traded at 23,300 won in January last year, it rose by a whopping 12,200 won.

Apples are not the only items that influenced the increase in fresh fruit, which was the highest among consumer price indexes last month. In addition to apples, tangerines increased by 36.9%, pears by 30.7%, and strawberries by 29.4% compared to the same month last year. Last year, production decreased as abnormal weather conditions continued, but prices rose as demand increased.

The anxiety of consumers who have to choose fruits to put on the ancestral rite table ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday is bound to deepen.

The government supplied 260,000 tons of agricultural, livestock and fishery products, the largest ever, to ensure supply and demand for Lunar New Year products, stabilize prices, and slow down the consumer price index. A record-high 84 billion won was invested in discount support for agricultural, livestock and fishery products, but the response is that it is difficult to feel the prices of agricultural, livestock and marine products on the ground, which are rising day by day.

The problem is that the Lunar New Year holiday is just around the corner and the prices of agricultural, livestock and fishery products may rise further due to external factors. At a meeting of emergency economic and price-related ministers held on the 2nd, it was predicted that it would take time for prices to stabilize due to instability in the Middle East.

On this day, Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance, said, “With international oil prices rising once more to the $80 range due to recent unrest in the Middle East, prices in February and March may rise once more to around 3%,” adding, “Prices in the 2% range are likely to rise once more.” “We will do our best to ensure that it settles down quickly and reliably,” he said.

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