Seoul, March 2 (IANS) Food expenses for the lowest income class in South Korea rose nearly 40 per cent over the past five years as soaring food inflation placed a heavier financial burden on low-income individuals, government data here showed on Sunday.
People in the bottom 20 per cent of the income bracket spent a monthly average of 434,000 won ($300) on food in 2024, up 121,000 won, or 38.6 per cent, from 313,000 won in 2019, according to data from Statistics Korea.
South Korea’s overall household food expenses rose by 175,000 won, or 26.3 per cent, to an average of 841,000 won over the five years, reports Yonhap news agency.
Those in the highest income group, in particular, spent 1.32 million won on food, up 27.1 per cent from 1.04 million won over the same period.
The rise in food expenses was driven by steep inflation in food prices in the country.
The food and beverage price index reached 122.9 in 2024, up 28.3 per cent from 95.8 in 2019, outnumbering the 14.8 percent increase in South Korea’s entire consumer price index during the five-year period.
Moreover, the price index for food services, which includes restaurant and catering prices, rose by 22 per cent from 99.2 to 121 over the cited period.
Experts noted that the sharp rise in food prices has had a greater impact on lower-income individuals as they typically spend a larger percentage of their income on food compared with the higher-income group.
According to separate Statistics Korea data, those in the lowest income bracket spent 45 per cent of their disposable income on food, while the top-income group set aside only 15 per cent.
Meanwhile, South Koreans spent an average of two hours per day on the global video streaming platform YouTube, industry data showed on Sunday.
South Korean users collectively spent 69.65 million hours on YouTube as of Tuesday, according to the mobile index data from industry tracker IGAWorks.
It marked 29.99 million daily active users (DAU), with each user spending an average of 139.37 minutes per day.
In particular, the daily average usage time rose to over 150 minutes on Sundays.
The IGAWorks data also showed that Instagram had 13.4 million DAUs as of Tuesday, with users spending an average of 50.58 minutes on the app.
KakaoTalk, the country’s top mobile messenger run by Kakao Corp., posted 37.16 million DAUs, with an average daily usage time of 30.12 minutes.
Naver, the largest mobile and online portal app, reported 26.51 million DAUs, with users spending an average of 25.4 minutes per day.
—IANS
na/
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BhaskarLive.in and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of BhaskarLive.in We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, BhaskarLive.in takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
