SEOUL: The Korea National Statistical Office announced on December 29 that South Korea’s total industrial production increased 1.6% between the end of October and the end of November this year after having stood at 0% in August, 0.9% in September and negative 0.4% in October. Specifically, the mining and manufacturing output increased 3.4%, led by automobile (11.4%) and communication and broadcasting equipment (30.6%), although electronic components and oil refining showed a negative growth of 3.0% and 2.4%, respectively. In November, the average capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector rose by 3.0 percentage points to 73.5%.
The service industry output increased 0.1% after having decreased 0.8% in September and 0.3% in the following month. The growth was led by the financial and insurance sector (up 2.2%) and professional science and technology service (up 3.7%). Retails sales, in the meantime, showed a decline of 0.2% as the sales of durable goods and semi-durable goods fell 1.2% and 0.4% in spite of a 0.6% increase in non-durable goods sales. Capital expenditure increased 5.9% as the investment in machinery and transport equipment rose 7.1% and 2.1%, respectively. The total value of machinery orders received rose 17.1% from a year ago and that of construction completed rose 6.4% from a month earlier.
