South Korean consumers’ inflation expectations fall to 11-month low

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean consumers’ inflation expectations fell in April to the lowest in nearly a year, a central bank survey showed on Wednesday, while overall consumer sentiment hit a 10-month high.

The median of consumers’ inflation expectations for the next 12 months fell to 3.7% in April from 3.9% in March, according to the Bank of Korea’s monthly survey of consumers. It was the lowest reading since May 2022.

The consumer sentiment index, meanwhile, rose to 95.1 from 92.0 in the previous month, hitting the highest since June 2022.

Among its sub-indexes, the ones on current living conditions and future living conditions, which usually show high correlation with inflation, jumped by 1.1 points and 0.8 point, respectively, leading the headline figure higher.

(Reporting by Jihoon Lee, Editing by Louise Heavens)

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