Producer prices grow for 6th month in June on high energy, service costs

SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's producer prices gained for the sixth straight month in June, driven by rising prices of oil, coal and services, central bank data showed Friday.

The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 120.04 last month, up 0.5 percent from the previous month, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

From a year earlier, the index spiked 9.9 percent, marking the 19th consecutive month of on-year rises.

Energy and raw material prices remained high due to prolonged supply disruptions sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, which was compounded by the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Prices of coal and oil-related products surged 4.7 percent on-month in June, with those of farm, forest and fisheries goods climbing 0.7 percent. In the service sector, costs of food and lodging expanded 0.7 percent.

Excluding volatile food and energy, producer prices increased 0.2 percent in June from a month earlier, slowing from a 0.6 percent gain in May.

An increase in producer prices is feared to add to upward pressure on consumer inflation as it could translate into higher prices of consumer goods.

In June, the country's consumer prices soared 6 percent on-year, the fastest rise in nearly 24 years, due to high energy and food costs.

In late May, the central bank hiked its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.75 percent to rein in runaway inflation, marking the fifth of its kind since August last year.

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