In April 2025, industrial production, services production, retail sales, and facilities and construction investments all declined.

 

Overall industrial production fell (-0.8% m-o-m, +0.4% y-o-y) as production dropped in the industrial (-0.9% m-o-m, +4.9% y-o-y), construction (-0.7% m-o-m, -20.5% y-o-y), and services sectors (-0.1% m-o-m, +0.7% y-o-y).

 

Retail sales (-0.9% m-o-m, -0.1% y-o-y), facilities investment (-0.4% m-o-m, +8.4% y-o-y) and construction investment (-0.7% m-o-m, -20.5% y-o-y) all went down.

 

Exports in May 2025 decreased by 1.3% year-on-year. However, average daily exports increased by 1.0% in May compared to the same month of last year.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) in May rose by 8.0 points month-on-month to 101.8. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) increased by 2.8 points to 90.7, the CBSI outlook for June also rose by 3.2 points to 89.5.

 

Both the cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index for April went up by 0.2 points and 0.3 points respectively.

 

In May, the increase in the number of employed persons widened and consumer prices rose at a slower pace.

 

The number of employed persons grew by 245,000 compared to the same month last year, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.2%p from a year ago.

 

The year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) climbed by 1.9%, driven by a larger decline in agricultural and petroleum product prices and a smaller increase in prices for personal services. The CPI excluding food and energy moved up by 2.0% year-on-year.

 

In May, stock prices went up, Korean Treasury Bond yields rose and the Korean won strengthened.

 

In April, housing prices dropped (-0.02%, m-o-m) while Jeonse[1] prices remained stable (+0.00%, m-o-m).

 

Recently, the Korean economy has continued to face downward pressure, as the recovery of domestic demand – including consumption and construction investment – remains sluggish, while employment challenges persist particularly in vulnerable sectors. In addition, external conditions have worsened due to the imposition of tariffs by the United States, leading to a slowdown in exports.

 

The global economy is facing sustained volatility in global financial markets and concerns over slower trade and growth, primarily owing to the worsening trade conditions driven by tariff measures imposed by major economies.

 

The government will swiftly formulate and implement a supplementary budget aimed at supporting economic recovery, boosting consumption, and assisting vulnerable groups and small businesses. At the same time, all efforts will be made to respond to trade risks, including support measures for domestic companies affected by U.S. tariff measures.

Key Statistics

Employment

	2024											2025
	Annual	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Number of employed  (million)	28.58	28.40	28.69	28.91	28.91	28.86	28.80	28.84	28.85	28.82	28.04	27.88	28.18	28.59	28.89	29.16
Employment  rate  (%)	62.7	62.4	63.0	63.5	63.5	63.3	63.2	63.3	63.3	63.2	61.4	61.0	61.7	62.5	63.2	63.8
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.7	62.8	62.9	62.6	62.6	62.6	62.7	62.8	62.7	62.7	62.3	62.9	63.0	63.0	63.1	62.9

Consumer Price Index

                                                                                         (%)

 

Retail Sales

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2023					2024					2025
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1¹				Apr¹
												Jan	Feb	Mar¹
Retail sales	-1.5	0.6	-0.5	-1.9	0.4	-2.1	-2.2	-0.3	0.7	-0.4	0.4	-0.6	1.8	-1.0	-0.9
(y-o-y)	-	-0.8	-0.7	-2.7	-1.9	-	-1.6	-3.1	-1.5	-2.0	-0.3	0.2	-1.8	0.7	-0.1

1. Preliminary

Facility Investment Index

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2023					2024					2025
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1¹			Apr¹
												Feb	Mar¹
Facility investment index	-4.8	-9.0	1.5	-3.8	5.0	3.0	-1.5	-1.4	10.2	-1.8	-1.7	21.3	-0.6	-0.4
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-0.9	-10.5	-5.8	-	-1.4	-3.3	11.5	5.3	5.6	8.0	14.5	8.4

1. Preliminary

  

Construction Completed

 (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2023					2024					2025
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1¹	Jan	Feb¹	Mar¹
Construction Completed (Constant)	7.8	3.4	-0.4	1.9	-4.2	-4.7	7.7	-8.2	-3.8	-5.1	-6.1	-4.5	2.4	-2.7
(y-o-y)	-	12.0	9.5	10.8	0.8	-	4.0	-3.1	-9.1	-9.7	-20.7	-27.4	-20.2	-14.7

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2023		2024						2025
	Annual	Q4	Annual	Q1		Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Mar	Apr	May
					Mar
Exports	632.23	168.12	683.61	163.30	56.52	171.51	173.65	175.15	159.85	58.12	58.21	57.27
(y-o-y, %)	-7.5	5.7	8.1	8.0	3.0	10.1	10.5	4.2	-2.1	2.8	3.7	-1.3
Average daily exports	2.34	2.49	2.53	2.44	2.51	2.58	2.53	2.56	2.50	2.65	2.43	2.66
Imports	642.59	158.56	631.77	154.81	52.42	157.04	160.00	159.92	152.57	53.28	53.30	50.33
(y-o-y, %)	-12.1	-10.7	-1.6	-11.1	-12.6	-1.4	6.2	0.9	-1.4	2.2	-2.7	-5.3
Average daily imports	2.38	2.35	2.34	2.31	2.33	2.36	2.34	2.33	2.38	2.42	2.22	2.34

Industrial Production (Mining, Manufacturing, Electricity and Gas Production)

                (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

  1. Preliminary

  2. Mining, Manufacturing, Electricity and Gas Production

  3. End-point (month, quarter, and year)

  4. Average operation ratio for the month (or quarter)

  

Service Output

           (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

    1. Preliminary

Composite Indices of Coincident and Leading Indicators

                                                                                           (Points)

	2024							2025
	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec¹	Jan	Feb	Mar¹	Apr¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.6	99.1	99.0	99.0	99.3	98.9	98.8	98.4	98.5	98.7	98.9
m-o-m (points)	-0.1	-0.5	-0.1	0.0	0.3	-0.4	-0.1	-0.4	0.1	0.2	0.2
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	100.9	100.9	100.8	100.8	100.8	100.8	100.7	100.3	100.4	100.6	100.9
m-o-m (points)	0.1	0.0	-0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	-0.1	-0.4	0.1	0.2	0.3

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.