South Korea’s industrial activities delivered triple falls for the first time in three months, with production, consumption, and investment posting losses in October from a month ago.

According to data released by Statistics Korea on Thursday, the seasonally adjusted mining and manufacturing output in October fell 3.5 percent in October from a month ago.

Against a year-ago period, the output gained 1 percent.

Korea’s overall industrial output including services activity fell 1.6 percent in October from a month earlier, marking the largest decline since 1.8 percent in April 2020.

Semiconductor output slipped 11.4 percent in October from a month ago and machinery equipment output 8.3 percent. Production of memory chips such as DRAM and flash memory and that of chip assembling equipment fell.

Semiconductor output had gained 13.5 percent in August from the previous month and 12.8 percent in September. The decline in October is the largest on-month fall in eight months since February.

Service sector output, an indicator for domestic demand, fell 0.9 percent in October from a month ago.

Retail and wholesale sector fell 3.3 percent and the financial and insurance sector 1.2 percent.

Retail sales, a barometer for private spending, dipped 0.8 percent in October from a month ago.

Sales of semi-durable goods such as medical products rose 4.3 percent and those of durable goods such as communication devices and computers 1 percent. Sales of non-durable goods such as food, however, fell 3.1 percent.

Capital investment fell 3.3 percent as spending declined in machinery and transportation equipment sectors.

The cyclical component of the composite coincident index, which measures present economic situations, fell 0.1 point to 99.1.

The cyclical component of the composite leading index, which predicts the turning point in the business cycle, rose 0.3 point to 99.7.

By Pulse

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