Jeju Economy Faces Consumer Sentiment Decline and Employment Freeze Amid COVID-19 Resurgence

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters (Jeju) Reporter Park Chang-won] The Jeju regional economy has recently experienced a significant decline in the number of tourists due to the resurgence of COVID-19, resulting in weakened consumer sentiment and employment.

According to the recent Jeju regional real economy trends announced on the 18th by the Bank of Korea Jeju Branch, last month's consumer sentiment index fell by 10.9 points from the previous month to 87.5 due to strengthened social distancing measures following the COVID-19 resurgence.

Last month's building permit area increased by 8.5% year-on-year, mainly driven by commercial buildings (up 21.9%).

The number of tourists visiting Jeju decreased by 51.3% year-on-year, as domestic tourists sharply declined.

During the same period, consumer prices rose by 0.6% as prices of agricultural, livestock, and fishery products continued to increase.

Additionally, the number of employed persons decreased by 11,000 due to worsening sluggishness in the service sector; the employment rate fell by 2.2 percentage points to 67.1%, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to 2.3%.

Housing sale prices remained stable compared to November last year, while apartment sale prices turned to an upward trend (0.1%) for the first time since April 2018.

During this period, agricultural product shipment value remained stable, and fishery product shipments increased by 38.1%, centered on dried yellow corvina.

Manufacturing production decreased by 2.4% due to sluggishness in non-metallic mineral products, and exports increased by 21.0%, supported by strong cosmetic exports. However, imports decreased by 44.1%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.