AI Subscription Fees and Meal Kits to Be Included in Consumer Prices... Peanuts and Doraji to Be Excluded
Ministry of Data and Statistics Announces CPI Revision Based on 2025 Standard
Going forward, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket will include subscription fees for generative artificial intelligence (AI) services such as ChatGPT, as well as smartwatches, Malatang, and salads. Peanuts and balloon flower roots (Doraji) will be excluded from the survey items.
The Ministry of Data and Statistics announced this revision to the CPI survey methodology on July 7. The Consumer Price Index updates its representative items and weights every five years to reflect changes in household consumption patterns. The results of this revision will be officially released on December 18, 2026, and data based on the new 2025 standard will be applied to monthly and annual consumer price trends starting from December 31, 2026.
This revision aims to better reflect the reality of price changes in everyday life by incorporating digital trends such as AI usage. Ten new items will be added, including meal kits, modular storage furniture, smartwatches, electric vehicle charging fees, cloud storage fees, software subscription fees, infant and toddler class fees, Malatang, salads, and online shopping subscription fees.
Among items with increasing expenditures, those with an average monthly consumption of at least 312 won will be newly included in the price index. Seven items with average monthly spending below 312 won—such as peanuts, balloon flower roots, bracken, butane gas, sinks, dehumidifiers, and storage devices—will be excluded.
Four additional items will be removed due to the expansion of free services: kindergarten tuition, supplementary school education fees, childcare facility usage fees, and art supplies. Black box recorders and lunchboxes will also be excluded because it is difficult to conduct ongoing surveys for these items.
Going forward, pork will be classified separately as domestic and imported. Electric vehicles will be divided into hybrid and fully electric passenger cars. Air purifiers will be subdivided into air purifiers and humidity control devices. Online content usage fees will be split into online game usage fees and streaming service usage fees.
Kimchi stew set menus and soybean paste stew set menus will be integrated under “stew set menus.” Bath fees will be merged with sauna fees, and beauty salon fees will be combined with barber fees.
In addition, the item classification will be revised to reflect updates to the International Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) and the Korean Standard Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose. This is the first revision since the adoption of the expenditure-based classification system in 2006 (using the 2005 standard), and as a result, some items will be moved or adjusted according to new expenditure categories.
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The Ministry of Data and Statistics will collect public feedback on these proposed representative items through Communication Innovation 24, the “People’s Ideas” platform, and the Ministry’s official website until July 17.
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