South Korea’s inflation rate hit a more than two-decade high in June. The benchmark consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.0% from a year earlier – the fastest since November 1998 – after a 5.4% increase in May, the statistics as early as Tuesday (5), according to local time.

The result beat a median market forecast of a 5.9% increase for June. On a monthly basis, the increase was 0.6%, while the projection was 0.5%.

Higher prices for industrial goods, services, agricultural products and utility bills continued to intensify inflationary pressure amid rising raw material prices, the office said.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose 3.9% from a year ago and 0.4% from a month earlier. In May, the advances had been 3.4% and 0.5%, respectively.

Analysts are increasingly betting that the Bank of Korea (BoK) will raise its benchmark interest rate next week by 50 basis points instead of the usual 25 basis points to curb inflation. Last month, the BoK said it expects the country’s annual inflation in 2022 to exceed its previous forecast.