Cloud storage, malatang to be added to South Korea's consumer price index in first overhaul in 5 years

The government plans to overhaul the basket of goods and services used to calculate South Korea's consumer price index for the first time in five years.

Reflecting recent shifts in consumption patterns driven by the spread of AI and growing digital spending, the revision will add items such as cloud storage fees, software subscription fees, online shopping membership fees and malatang — a spicy Chinese hot pot dish — while dropping peanuts, bellflower root and other products whose consumption has declined.

The Ministry of Statistics released a draft proposal Tuesday outlining the new basket of representative items for the 2025-base consumer price index and said it will collect public feedback through July 17. The final revised basket is set to be confirmed and announced on Dec. 18.

The consumer price index is a key inflation gauge that measures price changes for goods and services that households actually purchase. The ministry conducts a full overhaul of the index's base year, representative items and weightings every five years to reflect changes in economic and social conditions and household spending patterns. The current index, based on 2020, will be replaced by a 2025-base index starting next year.

This round of revisions adds a large number of items reflecting digital services and emerging consumer trends. The 10 newly included items are meal kits, modular storage furniture, smartwatches, electric vehicle charging fees, cloud storage fees, software subscription fees, infant and toddler lesson fees, malatang, salads and online shopping membership fees. Each item was included after surveys showed average monthly consumer spending on it exceeded 312 won.

Seven items will be dropped due to declining consumption shares: peanuts, bellflower root, bracken fern, butane gas, kitchen sinks, moisture absorbers and portable storage devices. Kindergarten tuition, school supplementary education fees, childcare facility fees and art supply costs will be removed as free education programs have expanded. Dashcams and dosirak will be cut because consistent price tracking has proven difficult.

Several items will also be broken into subcategories. Pork will be tracked separately by domestic and imported origin, and electric-powered vehicles will be divided into hybrid passenger cars and electric passenger cars. Air purifiers will be split into air purifiers and humidity-control devices, while online content usage fees will be separated into online game fees and streaming service fees.

In the other direction, kimchi stew set meals and doenjang stew set meals will be merged into a single "stew set meal" category, while bathhouse fees will be combined with jjimjilbang fees and hair salon fees will be merged with barbershop fees.

The classification system for items will also be revised to align with updates to the international Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose, known as COICOP, and the Korean Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose. It marks the first restructuring of the expenditure-purpose classification framework since its introduction under the 2005 base, and some items will be recategorized to reflect new consumption purposes.

After incorporating public feedback, the ministry will finalize and release the revised basket on Dec. 18. On Dec. 31 of the same month, it will publish for the first time the December 2026 and full-year consumer price trends calculated using the new 2025 base.