韩国产业研究院建议把现行成品油价格上限改为区间联动制，仅为智库建议、政府尚未采纳

A state-funded research institute has recommended reshaping South Korea's cap on petroleum product prices, in place for more than seven months since the outbreak of war between the United States and Iran, into a band-type ceiling. The cap has largely kept surging crude prices from passing through to consumers, but refiners and the government have absorbed the full cost instead. Managing prices within a range, the institute argued, would preserve incentives for consumers to conserve fuel while still containing excessive inflation.
The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade released the report, titled "Effects of the Petroleum Price Cap and Policy Responses," on the 27th. The institute acknowledged the cap's cushioning effect on prices but said the program needs to be redesigned. Even if retail prices can be controlled, it said, the energy shock does not disappear — it simply shifts onto refiners and public finances. The institute also cited the loss of incentives to cut consumption and the risk that accumulated price increases could hit all at once when the cap is lifted.
As an alternative, the institute proposed a band-type ceiling that would partially reflect increases in global crude prices within a set range. Under such a design, a 10% rise in international oil prices would translate into a 3% to 5% move in domestic prices, spreading out the shock. Even before the war, China operated a managed pricing system linked to global crude that adjusts prices every 10 business days, and the report said that approach could serve as a reference.
The report also suggested limiting price controls to vulnerable groups rather than extending them across all retail petroleum sales. Under the current cap, higher-income households that consume more fuel reap greater benefits. Targeted support would be more efficient use of public money, the institute said, directing it to freight transport, farming and fishing, small and midsize manufacturers and petrochemical companies that cannot easily cut fuel use because it is tied directly to their livelihoods.
According to the report, energy prices in South Korea, China and Thailand — countries that actively managed domestic retail prices for petroleum products — rose an average of 15% between March and August this year from a year earlier. In the United States and Germany, which imposed no direct price ceilings, energy prices jumped an average of 24.9% over the same period. That points to a restraining effect of nearly 10 percentage points from price control policies. In Japan, which subsidized refiners to push prices lower, energy prices actually fell 4.5% from a year earlier.