KONTAN.CO.ID - SEOUL. South Korea's central bank said on Tuesday it expects inflation this year to be higher than previously projected due to the Ukraine crisis, global supply bottlenecks and a likely recovery in private consumption as social distancing rules are eased.

"Inflation is expected to exceed 5% by a large margin for a while ... upward pressures will increase more in the second half of this year as overseas supply-side factors continue," the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in its biannual review of inflation-targeted monetary policy.

The BOK, which raised its 2022 forecast for annual average inflation sharply to 4.5% less than a month ago, said it does not rule out the possibility of inflation exceeding the 4.7% reached in 2008.