SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s economic policies should focus on stabilizing consumer inflation and managing household debt as higher interest rates have made repayments more onerous, President Moon Jae-said on Tuesday, with just a few months left in office.
Presiding a cabinet meeting, Moon said consumer price pressures are building which could hurt household finances at a time when interest payments for households are also higher following the Bank of Korea’s back-to-back policy rate hikes.
“Our utmost priority should be on stabilizing prices for staple goods for our citizens, and I ask for timely deployment of various policies to stabilize prices,” Moon said.
South Korea’s consumer inflation hovered near a decade high in January and remained above the central bank’s 2% target for a 10th straight month, as surging food and energy prices pushed prices higher.
A presidential election is set for March 9, and Moon will leave office on May 9, having served the single term permitted under South Korea’s constitution.
(The story has been refiled to insert dropped word “made” in lead paragraph)
(Reporting by Cynthia Kim; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
