The Bank of Korea forecasts that consumer price inflation will temporarily slow to around 2% in the middle of the year and then rise again to around 3% by the end of the year.

Today (2nd) morning, Vice Governor Kim Ung-han held a "Price Situation Review Meeting" to review the recent price situation and future price trends.

"Consumer price inflation continued to slow down sharply in May due to the base-effect effect as expected," Kim said, noting that "core inflation continued to slow down, slightly decreasing from the previous month's level (5.4 percent)," excluding volatile food and energy.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the consumer price index rose 0.3% last month compared to the same month last year, but core prices rose 3.3%.

Vice Governor Kim explained that the reason for the slow slowdown in core inflation is that "although the rise in prices for personal services has slowed, the increase in commodity prices has widened, mainly for textile products."

Vice Governor Kim said, "Going forward, the consumer price inflation rate may continue to slow down to a clear slowdown until the middle of this year, and it is likely to fall to around 9% by the end of the year."

In particular, core inflation is expected to continue to slow down compared to consumer prices until the middle of this year.

"There is a high degree of uncertainty regarding the future price path related to the trend of international oil prices, domestic and international economic trends, and the extent of utility bill increases," he said.