Korea should not stay optimistic about inflation situations for this year, the nation‘s finance minister said Friday, urging all government agencies to do their best to stabilize prices.

“Though the central bank and many private think tanks predict that things will improve this year from last year, we cannot remain optimistic given inflation conditions at home and abroad early this year,” Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told a price stabilization meeting.

Korea’s consumer prices jumped 4 percent last year from a year earlier, hitting the upper ceiling of the Bank of Korea‘s 2-4 percent target band.

The central bank predicted that prices will grow 3.3 percent in 2012, and many other think tanks including Samsung Economic Research Institute made similar forecasts.

The relatively optimistic outlooks, however, have been overshadowed recently by lingering eurozone fiscal debt problems and rising oil prices caused by tensions over Iran’s nuclear programs.

Inflation situations are also becoming volatile on the domestic front as prices seem to be rising for many foods ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday that falls on Jan. 23.

Bahk worried that prices of rice, pork and other products closely related to the daily life of ordinary people remain so high that they could hurt people‘s livelihood.

The finance minister, in particular, cited rising costs of importing crude oil and raw materials along with climate change as possible factors that could destabilize prices, urging all government ministries and agencies to employ every possible means to fight inflation. 

(Yonhap News)