South Korea's industrial output grew at the fastest pace in nine months in August, raising expectations that economic conditions are improving, a government report showed Monday.

According to the report by Statistics Korea, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries expanded 1.8 percent last month from a month earlier, a turnaround from a revised 0.3 percent fall in July.

This represented the sharpest on-month expansion since November last year when it gained 2.1 percent.

The service sector production also grew 0.7 percent on-month in August and gained 1.3 percent from a year earlier, the report showed.

"The output in mining shrank, but manufacturing, electricity, gas and tap water industries saw their production expand, leading to a 1.8 percent gain in the overall figure last month," the report said.

In particular, the manufacturing output increased 1.8 percent on-month in August, driven by brisk activities in automobile, and visual and audio equipment production. It also gained 3.4 percent from a year earlier, the report showed.

The average facility operating ratio in the manufacturing industry also rose to 76.5 percent in August from a revised 74.2 percent in July. This is the highest level in six months, according to the report.

Corporate investment made a turnaround from the previous month's contraction.

Facility investment by companies inched up 0.2 percent on-month in August, improving from the 2.7 percent decline in July. It also expanded 4.6 percent from a year earlier, which is much better than the 8.3 percent fall tallied in the previous month.

Retail sales also grew last month, though the growth rate remained weak. The report showed that retail sales increased 0.4 percent on-month in August, slowing from the previous month's 1.2 percent expansion.

The latest output data comes amid expectations that the country's economy is showing some signs of picking up following a prolonged slow growth trend.

The country's gross domestic product grew 1.1 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier, quickening from a 0.8 percent on-quarter advance in the first quarter. This is the first time that the growth rate surpassed 1 percent in nine quarters.

In drawing up its 2014 budget proposal recently, the government forecast that the economy will grow 2.7 percent this year and 3.9 percent next year, respectively.

The report bolstered the economic outlooks by showing that the leading economic composite index, a gauge of economic performance eight to 15 months ahead of time, rose 0.3 percentage points from a month earlier, marking the fifth straight month of improvement. (Yonhap News)