Did Consumption Coupons Have Only a Brief Effect?... August Retail Sales See Biggest Drop in 18 Months [3-Minute Brief]

[At a Glance]
① "Consumer Spending Drops Again": August Retail Sales Down 2.4%, Largest Decline in 18 Months
② National Tax Revenue Up 28.6 Trillion Won from January to August, but Progress Rate Falls Below Five-Year Average
③ "Resident Registration Card Verification" Service Resumes After Outage, Most Bank Operations Return to Normal

MARKET INDEX : Year to date

○New York Stock Exchange rises across the board despite concerns over a possible U.S. government shutdown

○Market closes higher for the third consecutive day... Dow hits an all-time high

○Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse over a temporary budget bill

Top 3 NEWS

■ 'Consumption coupons' have limited effect... Retail sales turn negative

○Statistics Korea's August industrial activity trends
○Production remains flat; retail sales down 2.4%
○Facility investment down 1.1%; construction output down 6.1%

■ National tax revenue from January to August totals 260.8 trillion won... Up by 28.6 trillion won, but progress rate drops by 0.4 percentage points

○Corporate tax at 63.4 trillion won, up by 17.8 trillion won
○Income tax increases by 9.6 trillion won to 86.7 trillion won
○Progress rate compared to the second supplementary budget stands at 70.1%

■ "You can use your resident registration card at bank counters"... Financial sector confusion subsides

○Confusion in the financial sector caused by the National Information Resources Management Agency fire is easing
○Resident registration cards cannot be used for non-face-to-face transactions, but driver's licenses or passports can be used as alternatives
○Resident registration cards can still be used at counters, and non-face-to-face loans and other services have resumed

Graphic News: Insurers face another tough third quarter... Fierce competition in health insurance and auto insurance drag down results

○Estimated net profit for eight listed insurance companies in the third quarter is 2.2633 trillion won

○Expected to decrease by 4% compared to the previous year... Life insurers down 9.4%, non-life insurers up 0.3%

○Low birth rate and aging population saturate the domestic market

the Chart: Auto stocks struggle despite historic bull market, weighed down by tariffs

○This month, Hyundai Motor shares fell by 2%, Kia shares by more than 4%

○Underperformance of auto stocks is due to the impact of tariffs

○Concerns over tariffs lead to net selling by institutional and foreign investors

Today's Key Schedule

○Domestic

○Overseas

02:00 Speech by Bundesbank President Nagel (Germany)

13:30 Financial Stability Report by the Reserve Bank of India

15:00 UK Nationwide House Price Index (MoM) (September)

16:15 Spain Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (September)

16:45 Italy Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (September)

16:50 France Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (September)

16:55 Germany Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (September)

21:15 U.S. ADP Non-Farm Employment Change (September)

23:00 U.S. ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (September)

23:30 U.S. Crude Oil Inventories

◇Lunchtime & Evening Weather

○Lowest temperature: 17°C(0°C) ｜Highest temperature: 26°C(0°C)
○Chance of precipitation: 0% in the morning｜10% in the afternoon
○Fine dust: Moderate in the morning｜Moderate in the afternoon

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