In April 2026, overall industrial production, facilities investment, and retail sales decreased.

 

Production fell across mining and manufacturing (-0.7% m-o-m, +1.5% y-o-y), services (-1.0%, +3.5%), and construction (-1.4%, -5.5%), resulting in a decline in overall industrial production (-0.6%, +2.4%).

 

Facilities investment moved down (-3.6% m-o-m, +8.1% y-o-y) and retail sales decreased (-3.6%, +1.6%).

 

Exports in May 2026 climbed by 53.2% year-on-year, supported by expanded exports of semiconductor, computers, and ships. Average daily exports rose by 60.7% in May compared to the same month of last year.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) in May went up by 6.9 points month-on-month to 106.1. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) grew by 4.0 points to 98.9 and the CBSI outlook for June increased by 3.7 points to 97.6.

 

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for April went up by 0.2 points and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index increased by 0.6 points.

 

In May, the number of employed persons fell, while consumer price growth accelerated from the previous month.

 

The number of employed persons went down by 40,000 from a year earlier, while the unemployment rate increased by 0.1%p to 2.9%.

 

The year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) climbed by 3.1% (2.6% in March → 3.1% in April), while the index excluding food and energy rose by 2.5%, the index excluding agricultural products and petroleum products rose by 2.5%, and the CPI for living necessities increased by 3.3%.

 

In May, stock prices rose, Korean Treasury Bond yields increased, and the Korean won weakened.

 

In April, both housing prices (+0.16%, m-o-m) and Jeonse[1] prices (+0.31%, m-o-m) continued to climb.

 

Recently, the Korean economy has maintained its recovery momentum, supported by robust exports and improvements in private consumption and business sentiment. However, concerns remain over pressures on livelihoods, including rising prices and slowing employment growth, amid persistent uncertainties stemming from developments such as the conflict in the Middle East.

 

The global economy has continued to grow at a moderate pace; however, the conflict in the Middle East has heightened volatility in international financial markets and energy prices, raising concerns over supply chain disruptions, mounting inflationary pressures, and a slowdown in growth.

 

To minimize the impact of the Middle East conflict, the government will continue operating its emergency economic response framework, expedite the execution of the supplementary budget – including financial support for those affected by high energy prices – and take all necessary measures to stabilize livelihoods through close monitoring of key commodity supplies and prices.

Key Statistics

Employment

	2025									2026
	Annual	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Number of employed  (million)	28.77	29.20	29.09	29.03	28.97	29.15	29.04	29.05	28.21	27.99	28.41	28.79	28.96	29.16
Employment rate  (%)	62.9	63.8	63.6	63.4	63.3	63.7	63.4	63.4	61.5	61.0	61.8	62.7	63.0	63.3
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.9	62.9	62.8	62.8	62.8	63.1	62.9	62.9	62.7	62.8	63.0	63.0	62.7	62.5

Consumer Price Index

                                                                                         (%)

 

Retail Sales

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2024					2025					2026
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1¹				Apr¹
												Jan	Feb¹	Mar¹
Retail sales	-1.9	-1.2	-0.7	0.4	-0.6	0.3	0.6	-0.6	1.2	0.6	2.4	2.8	-0.4	1.9	-3.6
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-3.0	-1.4	-1.8	-	-0.8	-0.1	1.6	0.9	3.3	0.5	4.2	5.0	1.6

1. Preliminary

Facility Investment Index

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2024					2025					2026
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1¹				Apr¹
												Jan	Feb	Mar¹
Facility investment index	3.0	-3.0	0.4	6.0	1.8	1.2	-2.2	0.3	0.6	-3.8	13.0	5.0	15.0	1.7	-3.6
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-3.4	11.4	5.6	-	5.4	5.5	1.2	-6.2	9.8	13.6	6.5	9.8	8.1

1. Preliminary

  

Construction Completed

 (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2024					2025					2026
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1¹				Apr¹
												Jan	Feb	Mar¹
Construction Completed (Constant)	-4.6	4.5	-5.5	-4.6	-4.6	-16.5	-7.2	-2.6	-0.8	-4.1	0.4	-7.8	11.1	-6.1	-1.4
(y-o-y)	-	4.1	-3.1	-9.9	-9.5	-	-21.1	-17.3	-11.9	-15.1	-6.2	-7.0	-5.9	-5.8	-5.5

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2024			2025					2026
	Annual	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May
Exports	683.61	173.65	175.15	709.33	159.53	175.13	184.89	189.78	65.84	67.56	87.21	85.87	87.75
(y-o-y, %)	8.1	10.5	4.2	3.8	-2.3	2.1	6.5	8.4	33.9	29.2	50.2	48.0	53.2
Average daily exports	2.53	2.53	2.56	2.64	2.49	2.63	2.59	2.85	2.80	3.55	3.77	3.58	4.28
Imports	631.77	160.00	159.92	631.90	152.84	154.40	162.49	162.16	57.11	51.95	60.39	62.11	60.80
(y-o-y, %)	-1.6	6.2	0.9	-0.0	-1.3	-1.8	1.5	1.4	11.6	7.5	13.2	16.7	20.8
Average daily imports	2.34	2.34	2.33	2.35	2.39	2.32	2.27	2.44	2.43	2.73	2.63	2.59	2.97

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)

	2025							2026
	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar¹	Apr¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.6	99.6	99.8	99.8	99.4	99.2	99.0	99.0	99.6	100.0	100.5
m-o-m (points)	0.2	0.0	0.2	0.0	-0.4	-0.2	-0.2	0.0	0.6	0.4	0.2
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	100.0	100.5	100.9	100.9	100.9	101.1	101.6	102.2	102.8	103.5	104.1
m-o-m (points)	0.2	0.5	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.