In September 2025, service production, facilities investment and construction investment increased, while industrial production and retail sales declined.

 

Overall industrial production went up (+1.0% m-o-m, +6.7% y-o-y), driven by a rise in the construction sector (+11.4%, -4.3%) and services sector (+1.8%, +6.2%) despite a decline in the industrial sector (-1.2%, +11.6%).

 

Facilities investment increased (+12.7%, +12.8%), while retail sales decreased (-0.1%, +2.2%).

 

Exports in October 2025 moved up by 3.6% year-on-year, supported by strong semiconductor performance. Average daily exports rose by 14.0% in October compared to the same month of last year.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) in October fell by 0.3 points month-on-month to 109.8. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) dropped by 1.0 points to 90.6 and the CBSI outlook for November went up by 2.6 points to 91.1.

 

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for September moved up by 0.2 points and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index climbed by 0.1 points.

 

In October, the number of employed persons increased and consumer prices rose at a faster pace.

 

The number of employed persons grew by 193,000 compared to the same month last year, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.1 percentage points from a year ago to 2.2%.

 

The year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) climbed by 2.4%, driven by increases in agricultural products and petroleum prices. The CPI excluding food and energy grew by 2.2% from a year earlier.

 

In October, stock prices went up, Korean Treasury Bond yields rose and the Korean won weakened.

 

In September, both housing prices (+0.09%, m-o-m) and Jeonse[1] prices rose (+0.10%, m-o-m).

 

Recently, the Korean economy has shown signs of recovery, supported by improvements in domestic demand – particularly consumption – and strong performance in the semiconductor sector, indicating an economic rebound from the weakness seen in the first half of the year.

However, employment challenges persist, mainly in vulnerable sectors, and uncertainties remain owing to the pace of recovery in construction investment and the impact of U.S. tariff measures.

 

The global economy continues to face volatility in global financial markets and concerns over slowing trade and growth, due in part to a deteriorating trade environment following tariff measures by major economies.

 

The government will strengthen policy efforts, including boosting domestic demand, to ensure that future growth momentum spreads across sectors, while making every effort to expand growth potential through initiatives such as the AI Transformation, Ultra-Innovative Economy flagship projects, and Productive Finance.

Key Statistics

Employment

	2024				2025
	Annual	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct
Number of employed  (million)	28.58	28.85	28.82	28.04	27.88	28.18	28.59	28.89	29.16	29.09	29.03	28.97	29.15	29.04
Employment rate  (%)	62.7	63.3	63.2	61.4	61.0	61.7	62.5	63.2	63.8	63.6	63.4	63.3	63.7	63.4
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.7	62.7	62.7	62.3	62.9	63.0	63.0	63.1	62.9	62.8	62.8	62.8	63.1	62.8

Consumer Price Index

                                                                                         (%)

 

Retail Sales

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2023					2024					2025
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Aug¹	Sep¹
Retail sales	-1.5	-0.7	0.4	-1.3	0.8	-2.1	-2.2	-0.3	0.7	-0.4	0.4	-0.9	1.5	-2.4	-0.1
(y-o-y)	-	-1.4	-0.4	-2.6	-1.2	-	-1.6	-3.1	-1.5	-2.0	-0.3	0.0	1.5	-0.4	2.2

1. Preliminary

Facility Investment Index

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2023					2024					2025
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3
														Aug¹	Sep¹
Facility investment index	-4.8	-9.0	1.5	-3.8	3.5	2.9	-1.5	-1.4	10.2	-1.8	-1.7	0.0	5.8	-1.3	12.7
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-0.9	-10.5	-5.8	-	-1.4	-3.3	11.5	5.3	5.7	5.3	2.0	-0.6	12.8

1. Preliminary

  

Construction Completed

 (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2023					2024					2025
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Aug¹	Aug¹
Construction Completed (Constant)	7.8	3.4	-0.4	1.9	-4.2	-4.7	7.7	-8.2	-3.8	-5.1	-6.4	-3.2	2.4	-5.3	11.4
(y-o-y)	-	12.0	9.5	10.8	0.8	-	4.0	-3.1	-9.1	-9.7	-21.2	-17.4	-12.0	-17.4	-4.3

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2023	2024						2025
	Annual	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4		Q1	Q2	Q3	Oct
							Oct
Exports	632.23	683.61	163.30	171.51	173.65	175.15	57.50	159.54	175.19	184.97	59.57
(y-o-y, %)	-7.5	8.1	8.0	10.1	10.5	4.2	4.6	-2.3	2.1	6.5	3.6
Average daily exports	2.34	2.53	2.67	2.58	2.53	2.56	2.61	2.49	2.63	2.59	2.98
Imports	642.59	631.77	154.81	157.04	160.00	159.92	54.33	152.63	154.29	162.41	53.52
(y-o-y, %)	-12.1	-1.6	-11.1	-1.4	6.2	0.9	1.7	-1.4	-1.7	1.5	-1.5
Average daily imports	2.38	2.34	2.31	2.36	2.34	2.33	2.47	2.38	2.32	2.27	2.68

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
	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul¹	Aug¹	Sep¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.4	99.3	98.9	99.1	99.3	99.5	99.1	99.1	99.0	99.2	99.4
m-o-m (points)	-0.3	-0.1	-0.4	0.2	0.2	0.2	-0.4	0.0	-0.1	0.2	0.2
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	100.7	100.5	100.2	100.2	100.3	100.8	100.8	101.0	101.6	102.0	102.1
m-o-m (points)	0.0	-0.2	-0.3	-0.3	0.1	0.3	0.0	0.2	0.6	0.4	0.1

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.