Consumption sentiment in South Korea has not fully recovered from a slump prompted by April’s deadly ferry accident, the finance minister said Monday.

“Recently, credit card spending continues to improve week by week but it is still difficult to say that the mood has fully turned around,” Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok told reporters after attending an international meeting to discuss knowledge sharing in Seoul.

“We have to see major second-quarter indicators to make an exact assessment but the impact is likely to be reflected to some extent in industrial output for May,” Hyun said. Industrial output data is to be released later this week.

South Koreans refrained from spending on outdoor activities as they mourned over the April 16 ferry accident, which left more than 300 people, including many high school students, dead or missing. (Yonhap)