[Anchor]

Food prices continue to rise at a noticeably faster rate than overall inflation.

Last month, prices of processed foods like ramen and coffee jumped significantly, pushing overall inflation higher.

Reporter Kim Jin-hwa has more.

[Report]

At the private-label section of a major supermarket—

A pack of five instant ramens costs 2,280 won, or about 450 won per packet.

Roughly 400,000 packs were sold in January, but sales surged to nearly 600,000 last month.

[Sim Chun-ja / Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul: "I always stop by here. I think the prices are cheaper. Even for the same product, you can find it much cheaper here."]

The popularity of so-called "value-for-money" ramen reflects how much regular ramen has become more expensive.

Last month, the average retail price of ramen rose by 6.9% compared to a year ago.

That's the biggest jump since Sept. 2023, when prices increased by over 7%.

It’s now common to hear people ask, “Is it true that a single ramen costs 2,000 won?”

[Son Hye-seon / Yangcheon-gu, Seoul: "I remember cup noodles being around the mid-1,000 won range, but now it’s closer to 2,000 won."]

Cereal prices jumped 11.6%, coffee 12.4%, ham 8.1%, and bread 6.4%.

In total, prices for 73 types of processed food rose an average of 4.6%.

That alone pushed overall inflation up by 0.39 percentage points, causing the consumer price index—which had dipped below 2% in May—to climb back above 2% in June.

[Park Byung-sun / Director, Price Trends Division, Statistics Korea: "We believe this is due to recent wholesale price hikes gradually being reflected in retail prices."]

To curb inflation, the government plans to release more reserve apples and pears into the market and resume imports of Brazilian chicken.

However, this is unlikely to directly ease the prices of processed foods, which rely heavily on imported ingredients.

The inflation rate for processed foods had dropped to the 1% range in the second half of last year, but since April, it has remained in the 4% range for three consecutive months.

This is Kim Jin-hwa, KBS News.

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