Kim Woong, deputy governor of the Bank of Korea, forecast that consumer price inflation will fall to around 2 percent in the period ahead.

Kim held a meeting to review price conditions on Tuesday morning and said, "With core inflation continuing a stable trend around 2 percent and amid the impact of weaker international oil prices, consumer price inflation will gradually fall."

He said, "In December, consumer prices saw petroleum product prices continue to rise due to the impact of the exchange rate, but the increase from the previous month narrowed slightly as gains in agricultural, livestock and fisheries prices slowed."

He added, "For agricultural, livestock and fisheries products, the increase narrowed due to expanded shipments of major agricultural products and the government's price stabilisation measures," and said, "Annual consumer price inflation was 2.1 percent, lower than last year (2.3 percent)."

He said, "As living-cost inflation remains high in the upper 2 percent range, we will continue to monitor price conditions while paying attention to the exchange rate's impact on prices and wintertime trends in agricultural, livestock and fisheries prices."

National Data Agency data on December and annual consumer price trends released on Tuesday showed the consumer price index for this month was 117.57 (2020=100), up 2.3 percent from a year earlier.