The Bank of Korea said South Korea’s semiconductor boom is spreading from corporate earnings and exports into household consumption in chip production hubs, while warning that stronger purchasing power could intensify demand-driven inflation. An issue note using regional micro data found monthly spending in high-exposure areas such as Icheon, Hwaseong and Cheongju’s Heungdeok-gu was as much as 4% higher than in non-exposed areas after bonuses, with the gap reaching 1.6% after 2025 payments and 3.7% in June as bonuses rose again. Cumulative additional spending from February 2025 through June 2026 was estimated at about 1.1 trillion won, potentially rising to about 1.7 trillion won by year-end, or roughly 800 billion won a year and about 2% of last year’s private-consumption increase. Consumption pass-through of after-tax bonuses was 27% in 2025 and 21% in 2026, within the range estimated for last year’s consumption coupons, though gains were skewed to high-priced discretionary items such as cars and department-store goods and partly diverted into Seoul-area housing, especially from Icheon. The BOK said bonuses at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix may expand about fivefold in 2027 from 2026 levels, potentially lifting GDP by 0.08% to 0.12% and 2027 growth by 0.06 to 0.09 percentage points, and it separately estimated semiconductor-related income could add 0.05 to 0.2 percentage point to core inflation, which stood at 2.6% in July.