Inflation Rate Limited to 1.5% in January

Statistics Korea announced on February 1 that the consumer price index increased 1.5% from a year earlier in January, 0.2 and 0.6 percentage point lower than that in the United States and Germany for December last year. The rate of inflation remained below 2% for three consecutive years.

Under the circumstances, some experts are mentioning the possibility of deflation with the economic recession lingering. This is the first time that the percentage remained below the 2% mark for three months in a row since the period from January 1999 and February 2000.

Still, Ministry of Strategy and Finance director Kim Jung-kwan said that the possibility is very low because the aggregate demand is above a certain level.