South Korea’s consumer price index (CPI) reached a 21-month high as a result of the prolonged conflict in Iran. The CPI rose 2.6% year-on-year in April, up from 2.2% in March. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, remained unchanged at 2.2%, suggesting that the latest increase was driven mostly by energy prices, according to a Wednesday morning briefing by the director-general for economic trend statistics at Statistics Korea. 

Petroleum prices jumped 21.9% from a year earlier, marking the biggest increase since July 2022. Gasoline and kerosene rose 21.1% and 18.7%, respectively, while diesel surged 30.8%. The impact also spread