South Korea January inflation speeds up, beating forecasts

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s consumer prices rose 0.6% in January from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday, slightly faster than a 0.5% rise in December 2020 and beating a 0.3% gain tipped in a Reuters survey.

Month-on-month inflation was 0.8%, logging the fastest growth since September 2018 and higher than the poll’s prediction of a 0.5% rise. In December, it rose 0.2%.

(Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Chris Reese)