S. Korea to freeze electricity rate for Q1 amid rising consumer prices

내년 1분기 전기요금 동결…물가상승 우려해 인상 유보

South Korea is going to keep electricity prices the same this winter, and not raise them... despite a surge in energy costs around the world,... to help protect household... who are dealing with high inflation and the uncertainty of the pandemic.
Our Han Seong-woo has the details.
South Korea's state-run power firm, Korea Electric Power Corporation has decided to freeze the country's electricity rates for the first quarter of 2022 amid rising consumer prices.
It revealed on its website Monday morning that the unit cost per kilowatt-hour will remain at 88.3 won, or point-zero seven four U.S. dollars from January to March of next year, the same as this year's fourth quarter.
In a bid to improve its profitability, KEPCO started using a flexible electricity rate system linked to global fuel prices in late 2020.
Rates were previously charged at a fixed-rate but now, the price of electricity is adjusted every three months, depending on global prices of liquefied natural gas, coal and crude oil.
The freeze comes despite soaring fuel costs, which led the state-owned power company to at first propose a three won, or 0.0025 U.S. dollar, increase in the per unit cost of power... a plan rejected by the government in consideration of growing inflation amid the prolonged pandemic.
In November, Korea's consumer prices rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier, the fastest on-year gain in a decade,... accelerating from a 3.2 percent hike the previous month.
South Korea's electricity rates are already among the lowest in the OECD, so the freeze is a stark contrast to the way fuel costs are being handled in other countries.
According to data cited by the Korean news outlet Hankyoreh,... Spain, Italy and Japan all raised electricity rates by double-digit percentages back in October, while France is going up by four percent in February,... which is an indication of the Korean government's much greater ability to influence prices.
But it's also led to fears that the debt taken on by the energy industry to keep prices low will eventually mean higher taxes.
KEPCO said it will discuss with the government... ways to reflect rising fuel costs in its electricity rates in the future.
Han Seong-woo, Arirang News.

#SouthKorea #freeze #electricity

2021-12-20, 17:00 (KST)

[sebastianmemphis]

Shove it. Just tell about housing prices hike.