Equipment Investment Gains 5.0% on Month
South Korea's industrial output fell 2.5 percent in April from a month earlier and 5 percent from a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the industrial data released by Statistics Korea on May 29, the April manufacturing output index slipped 6.0 percent on-month and 4.7 percent on year. The drop was led by weak overseas demand for Korean automobiles and semiconductors.
The manufacturing average capacity utilization rate in April marked 68.6 percent, down 5.7 percentage points from the previous month.
The services index in April increased by 0.5 percent from the previous month but decreased by 6.1 percent from the same period of the previous year.
Retail sales jumped 5.3 percent in April from a month ago.
On the investment side, equipment investment in April increased by 5.0 percent from the previous month and 1.4 percent from the same period of the previous year.
Meanwhile, the cyclical component of the composite coincident index, which reflects current economic situations, decreased by 1.3 points from the previous month, while the cyclical component of the composite leading index, which predicts the turning point in business cycle, decreased by 0.5 points from the previous month.