Latest reading: Consumer prices were up 2.6% in annual terms in April, following a 2.2% increase in the prior month....
Inflation in Korea
The Republic of Korea maintained moderate inflation rates over the last decade, averaging around 2%. Inflation was notably below this threshold in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and surged in 2021 and 2022 on economic recovery, supply constraints and high commodity prices. That said, inflation in 2022 was still below the OECD average. Inflation came down in 2023 and 2024 thanks to the lagged impact of successive rate hikes by the Central Bank.
In the year 2024, the inflation in Korea was 2.32%, compared to 1.27% in 2014 and 3.60% in 2023. It averaged 1.89% over the last decade. For more inflation information, visit our dedicated page.
Korea Inflation Chart
Note: This chart displays Inflation Rate (CPI, annual variation in %) for Korea from 2014 to 2025.
Source: Macrobond.
Korea Inflation Data
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inflation (CPI, ann. var. %, aop) | 2.5 | 5.1 | 3.6 | 2.3 | 2.0 |
| Inflation (CPI, ann. var. %, eop) | 3.7 | 5.0 | 3.2 | 1.9 | 2.0 |
| Inflation (Core, ann. var. %, aop) | 1.4 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 2.2 | - |
| Inflation (PPI, ann. var. %, aop) | 6.4 | 8.4 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.1 |
Inflation picks up in April from the prior month
Latest reading: Consumer prices were up 2.6% in annual terms in April, following a 2.2% increase in the prior month. April's reading was the strongest since May 2024, highlighting the effects of higher oil prices amid the U.S-Iran conflict. Relative to the previous month's figures, there were higher price pressures for housing and utilities (+1.7% in annual terms vs +1.5% in March), transportation (+9.7% vs +5.0% in March) and recreation and culture (+3.4% vs +2.8% in March). In contrast, price pressures reduced for food and non-alcoholic beverages in April (+0.3% vs +0.5% in March). Finally, the change in clothing and footwear prices was the same as in the prior month (+2.1% in April and March). Meanwhile, core consumer prices were up 2.2% in annual terms in April, unchanged from the previous month's reading. Finally, consumer prices rose 0.48% in April on a month-on-month basis, following a 0.34% rise in the previous month.
Panelist insight: Commenting on the outlook, Nomura’s analysts stated: “As oil prices have remained higher for longer than our previous assumption we revise up our 2026 headline inflation forecast to […]. However, we expect core inflation to remain stable at around 2.2% throughout most of the year before it returns to 2% by Q1 2027, as we believe the government’s? policy and mild consumption growth may weaken the pass-through effects from higher oil prices.”
Consensus Forecasts and Projections for the next ten years
How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Korean inflation projections for the next ten years from a panel of 35 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable inflation forecast available for Korean inflation.
Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Korean inflation projections.
Want to get access to the full dataset of Korean inflation forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.
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