In December, South Korea experienced a significant increase in its industrial production, rising by a seasonally adjusted 4.6 percent compared to the previous month, according to data released by Statistics Korea on Monday. This growth exceeded the anticipated rise of 0.4 percent and followed a revised 0.3 percent decline in November, which was initially reported as a 0.7 percent decrease.
On an annual scale, industrial output surged by 5.3 percent, again surpassing expectations of a 0.7 percent increase and marking a substantial improvement from the 0.1 percent gain observed in the previous month.
Conversely, retail sales experienced a decline, dropping by 0.6 percent on a monthly basis following a revised zero growth in November, initially recorded as a 0.4 percent increase. On an annual basis, retail sales fell 3.3 percent after a 2.2 percent decrease the month before.
The Index of Services saw a rise of 1.7 percent month-on-month and 1.2 percent year-on-year, rebounding from a 0.2 percent monthly dip and a 0.9 percent yearly increase recorded in November.
