Food inflation spike alarms policymakers

Food prices have continued to rise for months, burdening average households. 

Statistics Korea said Monday the inflation rate for July stayed within the central bank’s target range at 2.6 percent from a year earlier, but food and oil prices are increasing at far above the overall rate is causing disarray. 

The price of agricultural products leaped a whopping 16.1 percent in July from a year earlier and analysts are expecting it to worsen this month.