Expanding business experience… Automobile BSI 13.8p rebound

▲ Seoul Southern Employment Center, Ministry of Employment and Labor ⓒ Yonhap News

As the third corona19 epidemic has truly entered a phase and export volumes have increased, the business experience has slightly rebounded.

As a result of the BSI survey conducted by the Korea Economic Research Institute (Gyeongyeon Han) for 600 companies based on sales, the overall forecast for February was 96.6, up 4.9p from the previous year. This is the highest level since the outbreak of Corona 19 in March last year, and it seems that companies are expecting an overall economic recovery. The January performance was 97.1, exceeding the forecast of 91.7.

By industry, the manufacturing industry was still unstable. The manufacturing BSI fell 0.3p to 94.9. On the other hand, the non-manufacturing industry rose 11.9p to 98.8. Han Gyeong-yeon analyzed that the positive outlook was expanded, focusing on the construction industry (105.4) and the wholesale and retail industry (102.3), in anticipation of improving consumer sentiment and increasing business orders.

Among the manufacturing industries, major industries such as semiconductors and petrochemicals showed good overall outlook and played a supporting role. The forecasts for electronic and communication equipment (104.2) and petrochemical (103.3) including semiconductors exceeded the 100 mark for two consecutive months.

▲ Comprehensive BSI trend ⓒ Korea Economic Research Institute

In particular, cars that were in a deep recession rebounded to 91.2, up 13.8p from the previous year. According to the Korea Customs Service, automobile exports in January increased by 15.7% on the back of growing demand for eco-friendly vehicles such as electric vehicles.

However, forecasts by sector such as (93.4), exports (92.4), investment (96.3), employment (96.6), funding (96.1), and profitability (96.1) were all below the baseline. However, Han Kyung-yeon explained that the level before the Corona 19 crisis was restored as investment and employment rose sharply by 7.0p and 6.5p, respectively. The inauguration of US President Biden and expectations for commercialization of vaccines and other factors alleviating uncertainties seem to have led to investment sentiment.

Gwang-ho Choo, head of economic policy department Han Kyung-yeon, emphasized that “the economic outlook is showing a positive trend, centering on major industries, as uncertainties at home and abroad have eased somewhat.”