South Korea’s industrial output posted its worst decline in 10 months in November as slumping global demand hurt exports while services managed to provide some relief as consumption recovered, data showed on Wednesday. Factory output in November fell a seasonally-adjusted 2.1 per cent from a month earlier, according to Statistics Korea. A survey had projected a 0.5 decline, and October’s drop was revised to 1.3 per cent, reports The Media. November’s fall was the worst since January, led by semiconductors and communications equipment, while the finance ministry attributed the gloomy data to weak exports amid persistently bad external conditions. oncerns over weak growth spilling into next year were reiterated by the finance minister, who will step down in the new year to run for parliament. “We must not let the flame of economic recovery go out because we are facing the problem that it will be inevitable for the economy to run into low growth,” said Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan told journalists in Sejong City, south of Seoul. Choi said low global oil prices had “not been all good” for the local economy as it hobbled growth in emerging market economies and oil-producing countries, both customers for South Korean exports. Reflecting soft activity, factories on average used only 72.7 per cent of their operating capacity in November, the lowest since April 2009.On an annual basis, industrial output fell 0.3 per cent in November, compared with a 1.7 per cent increase tipped in the Reuters survey. October output was revised to a 1.7 per cent annual gain. December export data will be released on Jan. 1. A fall for a 12th consecutive month in annual terms is expected, according to a Reuters poll, despite the local currency having weakened 6.2 per cent versus the dollar in 2015. “Manufacturing in the fourth quarter will likely turn out to be worse than the third, as there is no hope in sight for exports – there is much riding on domestic demand at the moment,” said Huh Jae-hwan, economist at KDB Daewoo Securities. Wednesday’s data on services provided some hope for growth. Service-sector output rose for a fifth straight month by a seasonally adjusted 0.1 per cent from October, whose gain was revised to 0.4 per cent from a preliminary 0.2 per cent. It’s the longest rising streak for services since early 2011. President Park Geun-hye urged government officials this week to come up with strong measures to keep consumption from lagging as exports are expected to remain weak.
