SEJONG (Yonhap News) ― South Korea’s industrial output shrank for the first time in five months in January amid worries that industrial activities might be slowing amid toughened economic conditions, a government report showed Thursday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries dropped 1.5 percent last month from a month earlier. It is the first on-month output contraction since August.

The output still expanded 7.3 percent compared with a year earlier, rebounding from December’s revised 0.5 percent decline.

The service-sector output shrank 0.9 percent on-month while growing 1.7 percent on a year-on-year basis, the report showed.