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

 

Overall industrial production rose (+0.3% m-o-m, +1.9% y-o-y) as production moved up in the industrial (+0.3% m-o-m, +5.0% y-o-y), services (+0.2% m-o-m, +2.1% y-o-y) sectors, while production in the construction sector moved down (-1.0% m-o-m, -14.2% y-o-y).

 

Retail sales (+2.5% m-o-m, +2.4% y-o-y) and facilities investment (+7.9% m-o-m, -5.4% y-o-y) went up.

 

Exports in August 2025 increased by 1.3% year-on-year driven by robust semiconductor industry performance and average daily exports went up by 5.8% in August compared to the same month of last year.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) in August rose by 0.6 points month-on-month to 111.4. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) increased by 1.0 points to 91.0 and the CBSI outlook for August climbed by 3.4 points to 91.8.

 

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for July fell by 0.1 points and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index moved up by 0.5 points.

 

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

 

The number of employed persons grew by 166,000 compared to the same month last year, and the unemployment rate stood at 2.0%, up by 0.1%p from a year ago.

 

The year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) climbed by 1.7%, driven by the decline in petroleum and public service prices. The CPI excluding food and energy grew by 1.3% year-on-year.

 

In August, stock prices went down, Korean Treasury Bond yields dropped and the Korean won weakened.

 

In July, both housing prices (+0.12%, m-o-m) and Jeonse[1] prices rose (+0.04%, m-o-m).

 

Recently, the Korean economy has continued to face challenges such as delayed recovery in construction investment, employment difficulties concentrated in vulnerable sectors, and concerns over export slowdowns due to U.S. tariff measures. Nonetheless, positive signs for economic recovery are strengthening, with consumption rising on the back of policy support.

 

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.

 

Against this backdrop, the government will go all out to stimulate domestic demand by swiftly implementing the supplementary budget, distributing livelihood recovery consumption coupons, and organizing large-scale discount events. At the same time, it will also make every effort to mitigate trade risks, including providing support for Korean companies affected by U.S. tariffs.

Key Statistics

Employment

	2024						2025
	Annual	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug
Number of employed  (million)	28.58	28.80	28.84	28.85	28.82	28.04	27.88	28.18	28.59	28.89	29.16	29.09	29.03	28.97
Employment rate  (%)	62.7	63.2	63.3	63.3	63.2	61.4	61.0	61.7	62.5	63.2	63.8	63.6	63.4	63.3
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.7	62.7	62.8	62.7	62.7	62.3	62.9	63.0	63.0	63.1	62.9	62.8	62.8	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			Jul¹
													May	Jun¹
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	0.0	0.7	2.5
(y-o-y)	-	-1.4	-0.4	-2.6	-1.2	-	-1.6	-3.1	-1.5	-2.0	-0.3	0.0	-0.2	0.3	2.4

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	May	Jun¹	Jul¹
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	-5.5	-4.3	7.9
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-0.9	-10.5	-5.8	-	-1.4	-3.3	11.5	5.3	5.7	5.3	6.6	1.4	-5.4

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	May	Jun¹	Jul¹
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	-3.1	-2.6	6.4	-1.0
(y-o-y)	-	12.0	9.5	10.8	0.8	-	4.0	-3.1	-9.1	-9.7	-21.2	-17.4	-19.5	-12.1	-14.2

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2023	2024						2025
	Annual	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3		Q4	Q1	Q2	Jul	Aug
						Aug
Exports	632.23	683.61	163.30	171.51	173.65	57.64	175.15	159.55	175.11	60.81	58.40
(y-o-y, %)	-7.5	8.1	8.0	10.1	10.5	10.9	4.2	-2.3	2.2	5.8	1.3
Average daily exports	2.34	2.53	2.67	2.58	2.53	2.45	2.56	2.49	2.63	2.43	2.60
Imports	642.59	631.77	154.81	157.04	160.00	54.05	159.92	152.63	154.29	54.20	51.89
(y-o-y, %)	-12.1	-1.6	-11.1	-1.4	6.2	6.0	0.9	-1.4	-1.7	0.7	-10.7
Average daily imports	2.38	2.34	2.31	2.36	2.34	2.30	2.33	2.38	2.32	2.17	2.31

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
	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun¹	Jul¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.5	99.7	99.4	99.3	98.9	99.1	99.3	99.5	99.1	99.1	99.0
m-o-m (points)	0.1	0.2	-0.3	-0.1	-0.4	0.2	0.2	0.2	-0.4	0.0	-0.1
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	100.7	100.7	100.7	100.5	100.2	100.2	100.3	100.8	100.8	101.0	101.5
m-o-m (points)	0.0	0.0	0.0	-0.2	-0.3	-0.3	0.1	0.3	0.0	0.2	0.5

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.