South Korea is set to revise items in the consumer price index basket to align with current trends, including subscriptions and smartwatch-related costs. The Ministry of Data and Statistics will announce the details of this update in December. The revision will focus on reflecting consumer spending patterns in the digital sector, with additions such as subscription fees for software and cloud services.
Moreover, South Korea will exclude less popular items like bracken fern, used in Korean side dishes, while introducing new categories such as meal kits, electric vehicle charging fees, online shopping subscriptions, and malatang, a popular Chinese dish in South Korea. Public opinions will be gathered until mid-July before finalizing the reshuffle.
In other news, South Korean businesses saw a record high in excess funds in the first quarter, attributed to strong semiconductor exports boosting corporate earnings. Non-financial corporations held net financial funds worth 20.8 trillion won at the end of March, marking the highest quarterly figure since 2009. This increase was due to a surge in net profits from semiconductor exports.
Households also experienced a rise in net financial funds to 79.2 trillion won in the first quarter, with financial assets totaling 6,417.1 trillion won by the end of March. Despite a rise in debts, the ratio of financial assets to liabilities for households stood at 2.6.
