Core CPI (excluding food and energy) in South Korea

The South Korean CPI measure that excludes food and energy, its two most volatile components. Published by Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), it is the reading that best captures the underlying price trend and carries most weight in Bank of Korea decisions.

A chained Laspeyres index over a basket of around 450 items, with weights revised every five years. The release reports the index and its monthly (MoM) and annual (YoY) changes, not seasonally adjusted.

It is the benchmark inflation read for the won and the Korean yield curve, and it is released very early, on the second day of the following month, ahead of almost any other advanced economy. A hot core print reinforces expectations of higher Bank of Korea rates.

Being non-seasonally-adjusted, the monthly change is noisy. The five-yearly re-weighting introduces level shifts in the series.