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 continued to improve as employment and inflation remained stable in April, and industrial indicators, which were poor in February, somewhat recovered in March. In the first quarter, industrial indicators, with the exception of facilities investment, all improved across the board. The economy added less jobs in March than it did in February, adding only 649,000 jobs compared to 835,000 jobs. Inflation in April remained stable in the 1 percent range and increased 1.5 percent month-on-month, a slight increase compared to the 1.3 percent increase seen in February. Mining and manufacturing production increased by 0.9 percent month-on-month in March, but improved only 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter owing to poor exports in January and February. Service output increased 0.1 percent month-on-month, and 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter due to the negative impact of the New Years holiday. Retail sales in March improved by 1.6 percent owing to an increase in nondurable goods sales, such as groceries, and increased 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter. Facilities investment in March increased 1.5 percent month-on-month owing to an increase in investment in transportation equipment, however that increase was not enough to prevent facilities investment from falling 5.1 percent quarter-on-quarter as machinery investment fell. Construction completed fell 3.8 percent month-on-month due to delays in local government spending. The composite index of coincident indicators remained unchanged in March, but the composite index of leading indicators fell 0.3 points. Exports continued to be positive, improving 9.0 percent month-on-month, and posted a trade surplus of US $4.46 billion. The stock market had been rising in the beginning of April as concerns regarding a premature increase in interest rates by the US Fed were eased, but ended the month down as the Ukraine situation continued to persist. The value of the won rose. In April, housing prices across the country continued to rise, increasing 0.1 percent compared to 0.2 percent the previous month, but prices in the Seoul metropolitan area, which had increased 0.3 percent the previous month, fell 0.02 percent. Jeonse (lump-sum deposits with no monthly payments) prices continued to increase, but the increase slowed down from 0.5 percent the previous month to 0.1 percent owing to the ending of the spring moving season. The economy continues to recover, but the recovery in the private sector has yet to fully take hold, and consumption and service industry indicators appear to be slowing down in the wake of the April Sewol ferry disaster. The Korean government will continue to closely monitor internal and external economic trends as external risks remain, including US QE tapering, uncertainties in emerging economies, and the weakening of the yen, and at the same time will work to strengthen international cooperation and protect domestic markets from external shocks. The government will implement policies to ensure that the economic recovery takes hold and will continue to successfully implement the Three-year Plan for Economic Innovation to strengthen Koreas economic fundamentals. * For further details, please refer to the attached file

May 2014