The Bank of Korea (BOK) projected that the inflation rate for this year will be significantly larger than that of last year.

The central bank issued the projection on Sunday in a report, saying that the nation is recently seeing the inflationary pressure expanding across the board.

The report said recently, the number of product items whose inflation rate posted over two percent more than doubled from a year earlier.

In particular, prices of 38 of the 39 food items at restaurants posted growth in December last year.

Even the price of coffee, the only food item whose price did not change in December, posted growth in January, with prices of 34 food items rising more than three percent. The price of eating out rose at the steepest pace in about 13 years in January.

The BOK report expected that the prices of restaurant purchases will continue to rise this year due to the recovery in demand and the rising costs of ingredients.