Commodity Prices Grow Fastest in 3 Years
By Cho Jae-hyon
Finance Editor
Commodity prices jumped 2.8 percent from a year earlier in November on surging crude oil and grain costs, marking the 10th consecutive monthly gain and fastest growth in three years, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.
The price index for raw materials and intermediate goods, an indicator of consumer inflation in the coming months, advanced 2.8 percent month-on-month to 133.9 in November. From a year earlier, the index soared 12 percent.
Last month, the costs of raw materials increased 7.5 percent month-on-month and skyrocketed 31 percent from a year earlier. Intermediate goods prices rose 1.4 percent from a month earlier. The average price of Dubai crude, South Korea's benchmark, was $86.85 a barrel in November, up from $77.23 in the preceding month.
The spike in commodity prices came as high oil prices threaten increased inflation. Last month, import prices jumped 18.8 percent year-on-year, advancing at the fastest pace in over nine years.
Producer prices rose 4.4 percent annually, rising at the fastest pace in almost three years.
Annual inflation reached a three-year high of 3.5 percent last month, hitting the upper end of the BOK's mid-term target range of 2.5-3.5 percent. The BOK expects that annual inflation will grow 3.3 percent next year, up from an estimated 2.5 percent this year.
Meanwhile, the price index for finished goods, the barometer of overall inflation excluding services, rose 0.5 percent from a month earlier to 105 last month. Prices of capital goods gained 0.4 percent, with those of consumer goods also rising 0.4 percent, the central bank said.