September Production and Consumption Both Decline... Facility Investment Rebounds (Update)

Statistics Korea, September Industrial Activity Trends

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Last month, industrial production turned negative after a month due to a decline in service and construction production. Facility investment rebounded with an increase in machinery investment, but construction investment, including construction performance, continued to be sluggish.

According to the 'September 2024 Industrial Activity Trends' released by Statistics Korea on the 31st, total industrial production last month decreased by 0.3% compared to the previous month.

By sector, production increased in public administration (2.6%), but decreased in services (-0.7%), mining and manufacturing (-0.2%), and construction (-0.1%).

Within mining and manufacturing, production increased in machinery equipment (6.4%) and electronic components (4.7%), but decreased in semiconductors (-2.6%) and non-metallic minerals (-9.6%).

In the service sector, production increased in wholesale and retail trade (0.9%), but decreased in health and social welfare (-1.9%) and professional, scientific, and technical services (-1.8%).

Manufacturing inventory sharply decreased by 2.0% compared to the previous month, and the average operating rate fell by 0.8 percentage points to 73.5%.

Consumption indicators also turned negative. Retail sales, which indicate consumption trends, decreased by 0.4% compared to the previous month. Sales increased in durable goods such as passenger cars (6.3%), but decreased in non-durable goods such as food and beverages (-2.5%) and semi-durable goods such as clothing (-3.2%).

Facility investment decreased in transportation equipment such as other transportation equipment (-15.1%), but increased in machinery such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment (17.0%), resulting in an 8.4% increase compared to the previous month.

Domestic machinery orders decreased in the public sector (-30.9%) but increased in the private sector (6.9%), resulting in a 3.8% increase compared to the same month last year.

Construction orders (current) decreased in civil engineering such as machinery installation (-31.2%) but increased in building construction such as factories and warehouses (18.0%).

The coincident index of economic indicators, which shows the current economy, was 98.2, down 0.1 points from the previous month. The leading index of economic indicators, which forecasts future economic conditions, was 100.6, showing a stable trend compared to the previous month.

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