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 some economic indicators improve, including service output and facility investment, while inflation has remained stable. However, mining manufacturing production, consumption and construction investment fell, and employment grew at a slower pace. Real economic indicators excluding mining manufacturing production, such as industrial production, service output, consumption and construction investment, moderately improved in the second quarter until May, compared with the first quarter, taking temporary factors in the public sector into account. In May, the economy added 265,000 jobs year-on-year, down from 345,000 in the previous month. Consumer price inflation stayed stable at 1.0 percent in June, as favorable weather conditions and low international oil prices contributed to a continuous fall in agricultural and petroleum product prices. Mining and manufacturing production fell by 0.4 percent month-on-month in May, led by a drop in other transportation equipment, while service output increased by 0.2 percent, backed by an improvement in real estate renting. Despite strong semi-durable goods sales, retail sales fell 0.2 percent month-on-month in May, as durable and nondurable goods sales went down. Facility investment in May rose 1.2 percent from the previous month due to strong machinery investment, while construction investment dropped by 4.3 percent as both building construction and civil engineering works fell. Exports declined by 0.9 percent year-on-year in June despite strong exports of vessels and IT-related items such as mobile phones, due to fewer days worked and decreased shipments to Japan. The trade balance remained in the black at US$5.52 billion. The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index decreased 0.2 points month-on-month in May, and the leading composite index rose 0.3 points. In June, stock prices fell and the won weakened, due to the outflow of foreign capital from the stock market, which resulted from worries regarding the early tapering of quantitative easing in the US, and the strong dollar. Apartment prices rose moderately by 0.1 percent in June from the previous month, when the prices registered a 0.3 percent increase, while the upward trend in rental prices slowed down from 0.4 percent to 0.3 percent. The Korean economy is expected to gradually recover in line with an improvement in global economic situations and as policies have started to positively affect the economy. However, there still remain downside risks that may arise from the early tapering of quantitative easing in the US and the struggling eurozone economy. 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

Jul 2013