Pres. Lee Gets More Aggressive on Inflation

President Lee Myung-bak is seeking to more aggressively curb rising consumer prices triggered by the high prices of oil and raw materials and the plummeting value of the Korean won.

A senior administration official said yesterday, “The subprime crisis in the U.S. market has increased the chances of a global recession. It’s more than we first thought. We will beef up our countermeasures or implement them earlier. We could also take additional action.”

The government is likely to overhaul the action plan and measures prepared by a taskforce of the Strategy and Finance Ministry. President Lee criticized the plan, saying, “We have cut oil taxes 10 percent, but the people are not enjoying the benefits.”

Another senior official said, “We might freeze prices on more items than originally announced. We will do our best to enforce the 50-percent cut in highway tolls and build a system enabling customers to compare gas prices in real time.”

Under an order from President Lee, the ministry will invent new consumer price indexes for 50 key commodities.

ddr@donga.com