Economic Bulletin | KDI 경제교육·정보센터

KDI 경제교육·정보센터

Economic Information and Education Center

발행물

Economic Trends

The Green Book: Current Economic Trends

Overview Although the Korean economy has seen employment steadily improving, some real economic indicators such as mining and manufacturing production and retail sales have posted poor performance amid continuing high inflationary pressures. Employment continued to rise in December, led by the service sector and with an increase in regular workers, adding 441,000 jobs, while the employment rate and the unemployment rate stayed in good shape at 58.5 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively. Consumer price inflation declined to 3.4 percent in January from the previous months 4.2 percent, as a rise in core inflation slowed down from 3.6 percent to 3.2 percent helped by stabilized manufactured goods prices. However, expected inflation edged up from 4.0 percent to 4.1 percent. Mining and manufacturing production declined 0.9 percent month-on-month in December due to a fall in beverages and steel, but service output stayed flat as strong education offset weak wholesale retail sales and hotels restaurants. In December retail sales fell 0.2 percent from the previous month, as durable goods sales, in particular automobiles, decreased, despite an improvement in non-durable and semidurable goods sales. Facilities investment increased 0.5 percent month-on-month in December with rising machinery investment, while construction investment rose 14.8 percent as both building construction and civil engineering works went up. Trade posted a decline in January for the first time since October 2009, down 6.6 percent year-on-year, and the trade balance swung to a deficit of US$1.96 billion. The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index fell 0.1 point from the previous month in December, as the mining and manufacturing production index went down. The leading composite index rose year-on-year for the second consecutive month. In January, the financial market stabilized to some extent compared with the previous month, as improving indicators from US and China eased volatility in international financial markets. The gap in the housing market between the Seoul metropolitan area and other areas has continued, while housing sales prices remained unchanged and rent prices slightly increased. External uncertainties have continued to remain high with the ongoing European debt crisis, a possible slowdown in the global economy and worries over a rise in international oil prices. The Korean government will closely monitor any changes in local and global economic situations and the subsequent outcome, while reinforcing policy actions to help the economy continue to recover and keep prices stable. In the meantime, it will focus on securing the livelihoods of citizens through active job creation and stabilization of prices of necessities, and push on with economic restructuring and expansion of domestic demand. * For further details, please refer to the attached file

Feb 2012