Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013
The fresh food index that measures price levels in vegetables and fruits, meats, and seafoods rose 2.6 percent from a year ago. Of this, the prices of vegetables and fruits increased 18.4 and 4.1 percent, respectively, from the previous month. Due to the monsoon rains and hotter-than-usual summer days, the prices for napa cabbage and lettuce soared 69.6 and 59.8 percent from the month of July.
Meanwhile, the prices for seafoods fell reflecting the widespread fears of pollution following the leak of radioactive water in Japan's Fukishima. For example, the prices of mackerel and hairtail declined 5.5 and 4.7 percent from the previous month. The fresh seafood index also fell 1.3 percent to 109.9 from July for three months in a row.
The core consumer inflation rate excluding the prices of farm goods and oil products was 1.3 percent in August, unchanged from a year ago.