Producer prices vs import prices — the same ruler since 2020
From December 2020 to 2026-08, Korea's producer price index rose 28.6% while the won-basis import price index rose 59.2% — both measured on the same 2020=100 base the Bank of Korea assigns to each series.
Read this before the table: same base year, different things measured
Both indices use 2020=100 — the Bank of Korea's own choice, not ours — so they line up without conversion. But they measure different stages of the supply chain: the producer price index tracks what domestic producers receive at the factory gate; the import price index tracks what importers pay at the border, converted to won. No causal link between the two is claimed here.
Year-end levels, both indices (2020=100)
| Reference point | Producer price index | Import price index (won basis) |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2019 (pre-base) | 100.7 | 109 |
| Dec 2020 | 100.8 | 98.2 |
| Dec 2021 | 109.9 | 127.2 |
| Dec 2022 | 116.3 | 138.3 |
| Dec 2023 | 117.6 | 132.9 |
| Dec 2024 | 119.5 | 142 |
| Dec 2025 | 121.8 | 142.7 |
| Latest (2026-08) | 129.6 | 156.3 |
Monthly series, Bank of Korea. Year-end (December) values shown for each year, plus the latest available month.
What this page does not say
- No cause is assigned — not exchange rates, not energy costs, not tariffs. The gap is reported, not explained.
- Not consumer inflation — this is earlier in the supply chain than CPI.
- Headline (all-items) indices only — no sub-category breakdown (energy, raw materials, capital goods) yet.
- Won-basis import prices only shown — the Bank of Korea also publishes contract-currency and dollar-basis versions, not shown here.
This is not investment advice. It describes how two published price indices have moved relative to each other on their shared base year — it does not forecast future price moves.
Source
Bank of Korea, 생산자물가지수 (Producer Price Index) and 수입물가지수 (Import Price Index), via KOSIS — DT_404Y014 and DT_401Y015 (won-basis rows only).
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