South Korea’s industrial output fell for a third consecutive month in January, a government report showed Wednesday.
Output declined 1.2 percent from a month earlier, but moved up 1.8 percent from the same month in 2015, according to Statistics Korea.
Workers assemble a car at a local auto plant. (Yonhap)
Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries dropped 1.9 percent last month from a year earlier. Communications equipment production tumbled 24.5 percent from a year earlier, while output in the electronic parts and machinery sectors fell 11.2 percent and 1.9 percent on-year, respectively.
Production in the automobile industry also fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the semiconductor sector’s output jumped 15.8 percent and that of oil refiners gained 4.9 percent from the previous year.
Production in services expanded 3 percent from a year before, but it backtracked 0.9 percent on-month from December, the report showed.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy posted an 18.8 percent on-year decline in its outbound shipments in January amid waning global demand and low oil prices.
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)
