South Korea April inflation eases to 14-month low, matches expectations

SEOUL  -South Korea’s consumer inflation eased for a third consecutive month to a 14-month low in April on an annual basis, data showed on Tuesday, supporting the market’s perception that the central bank’s policy tightening cycle is over.

The consumer price index (CPI) stood 3.7 percent higher in April than a year earlier, the Statistics Korea data showed, marking the slowest growth since February last year and following a 4.2-percent increase in March.

It roughly matched a 3.75-percent rise tipped in a Reuters survey.

Despite the sustained cooling in annual inflation, other measures showed inflation pressure was far from disappearing as prices rose on a monthly basis and annual inflation held steady when excluding volatile items.

The CPI rose 0.2 percent in April from March, gaining for a fifth consecutive month, while the annual growth in the index excluding foods and energy items held steady at 4 percent for a third consecutive month, the data showed.

The official target for the Bank of Korea’s monetary policy is managing the broadest CPI growth at around 2 percent on an annual basis.

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