February Production, Consumption, and Investment Show 'Triple Increase' (Update)

In February, the three major indicators reflecting industrial activity?industrial production, retail sales, and investment?all increased simultaneously after a month. This marks a shift to an upward trend just one month after the triple decline in January.

Yonhap News

According to the "February 2025 Industrial Activity Trends" released by Statistics Korea on the 31st, total industrial production last month rose by 0.6% compared to the previous month. By sector, production increased in manufacturing (1.0%) and services (0.5%). In manufacturing, production decreased in primary metals (-4.6%) but increased in electronic components (9.1%) and electrical equipment (6.0%) due to higher output of OLED and IT LCD products. In the service sector, production rose in wholesale and retail trade (6.5%) and finance and insurance (2.3%).

Manufacturing inventories decreased by 1.2% compared to the previous month, and the average operating rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 73.1%.

Consumer indicators also improved, with retail sales?a measure of consumption trends?increasing by 1.5% from the previous month due to higher sales of durable goods such as telecommunications devices and computers. Sales declined in nondurable goods (2.5%) like food and beverages and semi-durable goods (1.7%) such as shoes and bags, but sales of durable goods (13.2%) including telecommunications devices and computers rose.

Another pillar of domestic demand, construction, rebounded by 1.5% compared to the previous month. Although construction performance decreased in building (-2.2%), civil engineering projects increased by 13.1% due to growth in plant construction and other projects.

Facility investment rose by 18.7% month-on-month, driven by increased investment in machinery such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment (23.3%) and transportation equipment including automobiles (7.4%). Domestic machinery orders declined by 7.4% year-on-year, with decreases in both public (-3.0%) and private (-7.7%) sector orders.

The coincident index, which reflects the current economic situation, rose by 0.1 point to 98.5 compared to the previous month, while the leading index, which forecasts future economic conditions, increased by 0.1 point to 100.4.

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