2001 inflation forecast at 2-4%

The Bank of Korea announced Monday that this year`s consumer price inflation would stabilize at around 3 percent.

It is 0.5 percentage point higher than last year`s target of 2.5 percent and much higher than 2000`s actual price rise of 2.3 percent. So it is expected that the projected inflation would be fairly burdensome to the nation`s economy.

"We discussed with the government officials and forecast this year`s consumer price rise at the 3 percent level, which does not include agricultural products and petroleum products," Lim Joo-Hwan, head of the central bank`s price analysis team, said.

He also said that prices might soar during the first half of the year in the wake of the high oil prices and then stabilize in the second half.

"There are uncertainties due to projected increases in medical insurance premiums and public utility charges, so there could be a variation of plus or minus 1 percent," he explained.