President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday ordered the government to compare and disclose consumer prices in different cities and provinces nationwide, stepping up his bid to rein in rising inflation, the presidential spokesman said.

   Lee, presiding over a meeting of inflation-related ministers, instructed Maeng Hyung-kyu, minister of public administration and security, "to release a comparative table of prices of about 10 major daily necessities in the nation's 16 provinces and metropolitan cities on a monthly basis," presidential spokesman Park Jung-ha said.

Bus and subway fares and vegetable prices were cited as examples of items subject to price comparison, Park added.

   Lee also asked officials to "switch their ways of thinking to find out a fundamental way to change the current pricing system, escaping from the typical way of curbing inflation such as crackdowns and surveillance," Park said.

   The president also ordered the ministers of finance and other inflation-related agencies to meet every week to tackle inflation issues.

   The government will announce comprehensive measures to ease inflation early next week, sources at the presidential office said.

Source:  Yonhap News (July 20, 2011)