In August, industrial production, services production and retail sales went up, while facilities investment and construction investment went down.

                                                                                                                                                

Despite decreases in construction production (-1.2% m-o-m, -9.0% y-o-y), the entire production moved up (+1.2% m-o-m, +1.1% y-o-y) as industrial production (+4.1% m-o-m, +3.8% y-o-y) and services production (+0.2% m-o-m, +0.9% y-o-y) increased.

 

Retail sales climbed up (+1.7% m-o-m, -1.3% y-o-y), while facilities investment (-5.4% m-o-m, +7.8% y-o-y) and construction investment (-1.2% m-o-m, -9.0% y-o-y) dropped.  

 

In September, exports grew by 7.5% from a year ago, thanks to the expanded exports of the IT sector including semiconductors. Average daily exports surged by 12.9% in September compared to the same month of last year.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) in September fell by 0.8 points month-on-month to 100.0. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) dropped by 1.3%p to 91.2 and the CBSI outlook for October declined by 0.1 points month-on-month to 92.6.

 

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for August went down by -0.1 points compared to that of last month and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index decreased by 0.1 points.

 

In September, job growth saw an increase and consumer price growth declined.

 

The economy added 144 thousand jobs year-on-year and the unemployment rate decreased by 0.2%p from a year ago to 2.1%.

 

The consumer price index (CPI) growth fell to 1.6% m-o-m while the CPI excluding the food and energy sectors increased by 2.0%, with the index excluding the agricultural and petroleum sectors up by 1.8%. The CPI for basic necessities moved up by 1.5%.

 

In September, stock prices dropped due to rising tensions in the Middle East, while Korean Treasury Bond yields plummeted following the U.S. Fed’s interest rate cuts, and the Korean won strengthened.

 

In September, housing prices continued to rise (+0.17% m-o-m) and Jeonse[1] prices climbed (+0.19% m-o-m), but the pace of growth declined.

 

With the Korean economy has recently been experiencing an expanding trend of price stability, the recovery momentum has been sustained mainly driven by robust export and manufacturing. While a moderate domestic demand recovery has been observed, particularly in facility investment and services, the pace of recovery varies across sectors.

 

Although the global economy is showing an overall recovery trend, mainly driven by the upturn in trade and the shift in monetary policies in major countries, the pace of recovery differs across regions. At the same time, geopolitical risks, such as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the potential escalation of conflicts in the Middle East, along with volatility in commodity prices and concerns about economic slowdowns in major economies, are contributing to increased uncertainty.

 

Under these circumstances, the government will strive to anchor price stability and promptly implement key policy tasks for supporting people’s livelihoods, such as providing targeted support for small business owners and boost domestic consumption. Also, the ‘Dynamic Economy Roadmap’ will continue to be proceeded aiming to improve people’s quality of life and enhance the sustainability of the Korean economy.

 

Key Statistics

Employment

	2022	2023					2024
	Annual	Annual	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
Number of employed  (million)	28.09	28.42	28.70	28.76	28.70	28.09	27.74	28.04	28.40	28.69	28.91	28.91	28.86	28.80	28.84
Employment  rate  (%)	62.1	62.6	63.2	63.3	63.1	61.7	61.0	61.6	62.4	63.0	63.5	63.5	63.3	63.2	63.3
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.1	62.6	62.7	62.7	62.5	62.4	62.8	63.0	62.8	62.9	62.6	62.6	62.6	62.7	62.8

Consumer Price Index

                                                                                         (%)

 

Retail Sales

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2022					2023					2024
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Jun	Jul¹	Aug¹
Retail sales	-0.3	-0.9	-0.7	0.8	-1.5	-1.5	0.6	-0.5	-1.9	0.4	-0.5	-0.8	0.9	-2.0	1.7
(y-o-y)	-	2.6	-0.2	-0.9	-2.3	-	-0.8	-0.7	-2.7	-1.9	-2.1	-2.9	-3.6	-2.2	-1.3

1. Preliminary

Facility Investment Index

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2022					2023					2024
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Jun	Jul¹	Aug¹
Facility investment index	2.5	1.8	-2.2	9.8	-1.6	-4.9	-8.6	1.5	-1.9	5.0	-3.8	-0.2	3.5	10.2	-5.4
(y-o-y)	-	-0.7	-3.6	5.6	9.1	-	-1.9	-1.3	-9.9	-6.0	0.3	-1.5	-3.3	18.7	7.8

1. Preliminary

  

Construction Completed

 (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2022					2023					2024
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Jun	Jul¹	Aug¹
Construction Completed (Constant)	2.8	-1.5	1.5	1.5	4.3	7.4	2.8	1.1	1.1	-2.5	4.9	-6.2	-1.5	-0.7	-1.2
(y-o-y)	2.7	-1.7	2.0	3.6	6.7	-	11.5	8.7	10.1	0.6	4.1	-3.0	-6.0	-5.2	-9.0

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2022	2023						2024
	Annual	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3		Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3
						Sep					Jul	Aug	Sep
Exports	683.58	632.23	151.22	155.78	157.10	54.65	168.12	163.40	171.51	173.76	57.26	57.73	58.77
(y-o-y, %)	6.1	-7.5	-12.8	-12.0	-9.7	-4.4	5.7	8.1	10.1	10.6	13.5	11.0	7.5
Average daily exports	2.51	2.34	2.24	2.33	2.29	2.60	2.49	2.44	2.58	2.54	2.29	2.46	2.94
Imports	731.37	642.59	174.04	159.25	150.72	50.97	158.56	154.86	156.96	160.44	53.85	54.07	52.12
(y-o-y, %)	18.9	-12.1	-2.2	-13.2	-21.6	-16.5	-10.7	-11.1	-1.4	6.2	10.5	6.0	2.2
Average daily imports	2.68	2.38	2.58	2.38	2.20	2.60	2.35	2.31	2.36	2.34	2.15	2.30	2.61

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)

	2023			2024
	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun¹	Jul¹	Aug¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.9	99.9	99.8	99.9	100.1	99.8	99.7	99.1	99.0	98.3	98.2
m-o-m (points)	0.1	0.0	-0.1	0.1	0.2	-0.3	-0.1	-0.6	-0.1	-0.7	-0.1
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	99.8	100.1	100.2	100.2	100.4	100.2	100.5	100.5	100.7	100.7	100.6
m-o-m (points)	0.2	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.2	-0.2	0.3	0.0	0.2	0.0	-0.1

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.