“The overall Korean economy appears to be entering the stabilization phase, coming back to a normal pace,” the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said in its monthly report that analyzes current economic conditions at home and abroad.
It cited the overall improvement in production, exports and investment-related statistics as its reason for the favorable assessment, which is also in line with the government’s view in its similar, recently-unveiled report.
Industrial output jumped 36.9 percent in January from a year earlier, driven by robust demand for semiconductors and vehicles, the report said.
Exports continued their upward move with February outbound sales posting $33.27 billion. The nation’s trade account also turned positive with a surplus of $2.33 billion, according to the report.
Investment-related statistics pointed to better economic conditions as well.
Facility investment expanded 20.4 percent in January from a year earlier, the similar growth pace to the 21.1 percent on-year rise in the previous month, the report showed.
Consumption-related indices, however, suggested that the recovery of private-sector demand is slowing “more or less,” the report said.
Retail sales rose 6.9 percent in January from a year earlier, decelerating from a 12.7 percent advance in the previous month. From a month earlier, sales adjusted for inflation declined 1.3 percent.
The overall review of the local economy comes amid fresh worries that its recovery might be losing steam after a faster-than-expected rebound over the past year.
According to an earlier report by Statistics Korea, the indicator on the nation’s future outlooks fell for the first time in 13 months in January.
Consumer prices and a sluggish job market are also cited as possible drags on Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
But the government remains confident that the economy is on its path to a recovery, saying that the recent deterioration in some indicators is due to one-off factors.
“One-off factors including heavy snow, a cold spell and the end of government tax incentives for car purchases caused some indicators to slow down but the nation’s economy maintains its overall recovery trend,” the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said in a report on Friday.
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