In September, facility investment showed an increase, while construction production declined, and mining and manufacturing output adjusted after a sharp rebound in the previous month.

 

The entire industry production fell (-0.3% m-o-m, -1.1% y-o-y) as production climbed up in public administration (+2.6%, +1.3%), but decreased in mining and manufacturing (-0.2%, -1.3%), services (-0.7%, -0.2%), and construction (-0.1%, -12.1%).

 

Expenditure surged in facility investment (+8.4% m-o-m, +6.1% y-o-y), while retail sales (-0.4%, -2.2%) and construction investment (-0.1%, -12.1%) dropped. Average daily exports in October went up by 4.6% year-on-year, driven by growth in semiconductor and automobile exports.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) in October improved by 1.7 points month-on-month to 101.7. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) moved up by 0.9 points but the CBSI outlook for November fell by 2.8 points to 89.8.

 

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for September went down by -0.1 points month-on-month, while the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index remained unchanged.

 

In October, job growth saw an increase and consumer price growth continued to decline.

 

The economy added 83 thousand jobs year-on-year and the unemployment rate rose by 0.2%p from a year ago to 2.3%.

 

The year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) growth slowed to 1.3% while the CPI excluding the food and energy sectors grew by 1.8%, with the index excluding the agricultural and petroleum sectors up by 1.7%. The CPI for basic necessities moved up by 1.2%.

 

In October, stock prices dropped while Korean Treasury Bond yields rose and the Korean won weakened.

 

In September, housing prices continued to rise (+0.17% m-o-m) and Jeonse[1] prices climbed (+0.19%), 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. However, uncertainties still persist due to both domestic and global conditions.

 

While the global economic is broadly on a recovery path, uncertainties are increasing owing to persistent geopolitical risks in the Middle East and potential changes in the trade environment.

 

A comprehensive government response system will be mobilized across the financial, trade, and industrial sectors, and tailored support for vulnerable spots will be strengthened such as construction investment and small business owners, alongside implementing the Dynamic Economy Roadmap to enhance the sustainability of the Korean economy.

Key Statistics

Employment

	2022	2023				2024
	Annual	Annual	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct
Number of employed  (million)	28.09	28.42	28.76	28.70	28.09	27.74	28.04	28.40	28.69	28.91	28.91	28.86	28.80	28.84	28.85
Employment  rate  (%)	62.1	62.6	63.3	63.1	61.7	61.0	61.6	62.4	63.0	63.5	63.5	63.3	63.2	63.3	63.3
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.1	62.6	62.7	62.5	62.4	62.8	63.0	62.8	62.9	62.6	62.6	62.6	62.7	62.8	62.7

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	Q3¹	Jul	Aug¹	Sep¹
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	-0.5	-2.0	1.7	-0.4
(y-o-y)	-	2.6	-0.2	-0.9	-2.3	-	-0.8	-0.7	-2.7	-1.9	-2.1	-2.9	-1.9	-2.2	-1.3	-2.2

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	Q3	Aug¹	Sep¹
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	10.1	-5.1	8.4
(y-o-y)	-	-0.7	-3.6	5.6	9.1	-	-1.9	-1.3	-9.9	-6.0	0.3	-1.5	10.5	7.5	6.1

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	Q3	Aug¹	Sep¹
Construction Completed (Constant)	2.8	-1.5	1.5	1.5	4.3	7.3	2.8	1.1	1.1	-2.5	4.9	-6.2	-4.2	-1.9	-0.1
(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	-8.8	-9.2	-12.1

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2022	2023						2024
	Annual	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4		Q1	Q2	Q3			Oct
							Oct				Aug	Sep
Exports	683.58	632.23	151.22	155.78	157.10	168.12	54.99	163.40	171.51	173.76	57.73	58.77	57.52
(y-o-y, %)	6.1	-7.5	-12.8	-12.0	-9.7	5.7	4.9	8.1	10.1	10.6	11.0	7.5	4.6
Average daily exports	2.51	2.34	2.24	2.33	2.29	2.49	2.62	2.44	2.58	2.54	2.46	2.94	2.61
Imports	731.37	642.59	174.04	159.25	150.72	158.56	53.44	154.86	156.96	160.44	54.07	52.12	54.35
(y-o-y, %)	18.9	-12.1	-2.2	-13.2	-21.6	-10.7	-9.7	-11.1	-1.4	6.2	6.0	2.2	1.7
Average daily imports	2.68	2.38	2.58	2.38	2.20	2.35	2.54	2.31	2.36	2.34	2.30	2.61	2.47

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
	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul¹	Aug¹	Sep¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.9	99.8	99.9	100.1	99.8	99.7	99.1	99.0	98.3	98.3	98.2
m-o-m (points)	0.0	-0.1	0.1	0.2	-0.3	-0.1	-0.6	-0.1	-0.7	0.0	-0.1
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	100.1	100.2	100.2	100.4	100.2	100.5	100.5	100.7	100.7	100.6	100.6
m-o-m (points)	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.2	-0.2	0.3	0.0	0.2	0.0	-0.1	0.0

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.