Price-hit cigarette sales recovering in South Korea

Cigarette sales in South Korea, which plummeted in January after a tax-led price hike at the beginning of the year, slowed their downward trend in March, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

According to data compiled by a local convenience-store chain, cigarette sales during the third week of March were down by 15.1 percent on those of the same period of 2014.

In January, sales were down by 40.3 percent year-on-year and in February they were down by 22.4 percent year-on-year.

Cigarette prices increased on January 1 by 80 percent; or about WON2,000 per pack.

Just how much can be read into these figures is hard to say. A convenience store official was quoted as saying that it was usual for cigarette sales to fall in January and February after people made New Year resolutions to stop smoking.

And it was usual also for sales to start to revive in March as more people quit their resolutions to quit.

While the government has been claiming that the price rise was aimed at increasing health awareness and reducing South Korea’s relatively high smoking rates, some policy watchers say the move came as the government expected a tax-revenue shortfall because of a delay in the country’s economic recovery, which had coincided with an expansion in welfare payments.