South Korea’s consumer inflation quickened in October as a weaker won lifted energy and food costs, reinforcing the case for the central bank to extend the pause in its monetary easing cycle as it seeks to cool a housing market rally.

Consumer prices advanced 2.4% from a year earlier, accelerating from a 2.1% gain in September, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said Tuesday. The pace, which exceeded the median forecast of 2.2% in a Bloomberg survey of economists, was the fastest since July 2024, when prices increased by 2.6%.

Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy items, picked up to a 2.2% clip from 2% in September, the data showed. Both headline and core gauges are now hovering above the Bank of Korea’s 2% target.

The latest inflation reading comes at a delicate t

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