By Kang Seung-woo
Consumer prices in Korea rose at the second-highest pace among major world economies for the third straight month in March, as soaring food prices ramped up overall inflationary pressure, an international economic organization said Wednesday.
According to the data by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the nation’s consumer prices climbed 4.7 percent in March from a year earlier, the second-steepest gain among the 34 member countries surveyed.
Korea has shown an uptick in the consumer price index, as it came in fourth in January and second in both February and March.
Estonia, which perched at 5.7 percent in February, topped the list after remaining above 5 percent for the fifth straight month as its consumer prices increased 5.2 percent year-on-year and Greece, Hungary and New Zealand followed Korea with 4.5 percent gains. Poland and Israel sat at 4.4 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.
Among the seven major advanced economies or G7, Britain posted the highest 4.0 percent year-on-year increase, while the United States, Germany and France all remained in the 2 percent level. Canada’s inflation grew 3.3 percent from a year ago.
Japan notched zero inflation for the fourth month in a row.
The OECD members’ consumer prices grew at an average of 2.7 percent in March, up from a 2.4 percent gain in February, indicating that the global economy is under mounting inflationary pressure amid higher oil and food prices, according to the data.
Food prices raised Korea’s consumer price level by soaring 10.9 percent in March. The food price hike also marked the second sharpest after Estonia, which posted 11.6 percent growth.
Escalating consumer prices in Korea have raised concerns that price hikes might undercut the overall momentum of the economic recovery.
In April, Korea’s consumer prices slowed to 4.2 percent from March, but marked the fourth consecutive month that the price growth has been above the 4 percent level.
The government recently predicted that consumer prices will not sink below 4 percent until the end of the first half.
The Lee Myung-bak administration said earlier this year that the economy will grow 5 percent in 2011 with inflation to be stabilized at around 3 percent, which drew negative reactions from market watchers.