South Korea's household spending dropped to an all-time low in the third quarter due mainly to lingering effects of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak amid slowing growth in income, a government report showed Friday.

In the July-September period, the average consumption propensity, or the ratio of total consumption spending to disposable income, came to 71.5 percent, down 0.9 percentage point from the same period last year, according to the report from Statistics Korea.

The Q3 tally is the lowest since the same reading was registered in the fourth quarter of 2014. The quarterly reading also marks a slip of 0.1 percentage point from the previous quarter.

"Household spending further slowed in the third quarter due to a slowing growth in employment and lingering effects of the MERS outbreak amid a rise in the number of potential consumers waiting for the right time to spend ahead of large sales promotions," the report said.

The MERS outbreak, confirmed on May 20, has sent jitters throughout the market, especially the retail and tour industries, as people avoided public venues out of fear of catching the potentially deadly disease.

The viral respiratory disease has claimed 37 lives here. No new infections have been reported since early July, but the country still has not been able to declare an official end to the outbreak as one female patient still remains hospitalized over four months after her diagnosis.

In terms of actual amount, the average monthly spending of each household came to 3.39 million won ($2,924) in the third quarter, down 0.5 percent from the same period last year.

Consumption spending slipped 0.5 percent on-year to 2.56 million won with non-consumption spending, which include insurance payments, also dipped 0.4 percent to some 834,000 won per month over the cited period.

A slowdown in the rise of household income also attributed to a dip in people's tendency to spend, according to the report.

In the three months ending Sept. 30, the average disposable income of households gained 0.9 percent on-year to some 3.58 million won per month, compared with a 3 percent on-year increase in the second quarter.

Household income surplus, on the other hand, gained 4.7 percent from three months earlier to an average 1.02 million won per month as spending shrank while income rose, it showed. (Yonhap)