Economic Bulletin | KDI 경제교육·정보센터

KDI 경제교육·정보센터

Economic Information and Education Center

발행물

Economic Trends

The Green Book: Current Economic Trends

Overview The Korean economy has seen mining manufacturing production and service output improve, led by exports, real estate and construction investment, while inflation has remained stable. However, consumption and facility investment have shown instability. In April, the economy added 345,000 jobs year-on-year, an increase from 249,000 in the previous month, while both the employment and unemployment rates slightly improved. Consumer price inflation fell to 1.0 percent in May from 1.2 percent a year ago, staying stable in the 1.0 percent range, due to a fall in agricultural and petroleum product prices. Mining and manufacturing production rose by 0.8 percent month-on-month in April backed by an increase in other transportation equipment and audio-visual communications equipment, while service output increased by 0.2 percent, led by an improvement in real estate renting and professional, scientific technical services. Despite strong durable goods sales, retail sales fell 0.5 percent month-on-month in April, as semidurable and nondurable goods sales went down. Facility investment in April fell 4.0 percent from the previous month due to a fall in transportation equipment investment, while construction investment jumped by 9.4 percent as both building construction and civil engineering works increased. Exports went up by 3.2 percent year-on-year in May, led by strong IT related exports and exports to China, despite a drop in steel and vessel exports and shipments to Japan. The trade balance remained in the black at US$6.03 billion. The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index increased 0.2 points month-on-month in April, and the leading composite index rose 0.1 points. In May, stock prices rose in line with bullish global stock markets and as foreign capital flowed in. The won weakened against the dollar, which strengthened due to improving US economic indicators and the possibility that the Fed will taper its quantitative easing. Housing prices grew at a faster rate in May, from 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent month-on-month, while the upward trend in rental prices slowed down from 0.7 percent to 0.4 percent. Despite strong exports and improving construction investment, the Korean economy may continue to grow slowly as consumption and facility investment remain weak amid lingering uncertainties due to the struggling eurozone economy and risks from major countries loose monetary policies. The Korean government will closely watch the global and domestic economic situations and reinforce its monitoring of global and domestic markets, while continuing to pursue policies to stimulate the economy. At the same time, the government will focus on securing the lives of the low- and middle income classes through job creation and by stabilizing the prices of necessities, while continuing to adopt policies to improve the health of the economy. * For further details, please refer to the attached file

Jun 2013