S.Korea sets price caps on 52 daily necessities

South Koreans may find they can afford to lose their trousers but not their shirts; drink a bit more soju, the cheap national liquor, but not beer; and wash their hair and clothes more often but not their hands.

The newly inaugurated government released a list of 52 consumer goods whose prices it wants to control to help ease rising costs in the face of soaring energy prices and the falling Korean won.

New president Lee Myung-bak has separately promised a range of tax cuts across the economy, as he battles to soften the blow from inflation to Asia's fourth-largest economy.