South Korea’s industrial output edged up in February from the previous month after shrinking in January thanks to brisk manufacturing activity- the best record since September 2009 - led by a recovery in semiconductor shipments following new releases of mobile IT devices.

According to Statistics Korea Thursday, industrial output in February climbed 0.8 percent from a month earlier, recovering from a 1.5 percent contraction in January, led by improvement on the external front. Industrial activity remained mostly depressed in the final quarter last year, dropping 0.8 percent in October and 0.5 percent in November. It gained 1.3 percent in December, but failed to keep up the upward momentum in the following month.

Retail sales fell in February despite the Lunar New Year’s holiday, but manufacturing and service sector both picked up. Mining and manufacturing gained 3.3 percent, the highest on-month rise since 3.7 percent in September 2009, thanks to a 19.6 percent jump in semiconductor and a 12.5 percent gain in metal processing.

Factory inventory increased 2.1 percent from the previous month, but the ratio against shipment edged down by 0.5 percentage point to 128.0 percent. Average operation rate of manufacturers went up 1.2 percentage points to 73.5 percent.

Non-manufacturing output rose 0.3 percent in February from the previous month.

But the domestic front remained mostly gloomy.

Retail sales - a barometer for private consumption - fell 1.8 percent in February for the second consecutive month due to poor sales in non-durable consumer products even as sales of cars and other durable products gained 3.6 percent.

Capital investment also fell for the second straight month, down 6.8 percent from January.

By Na Hyun-joon

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