In December, there is an atmosphere of’triple increase’.
In the News Reporter Nam Gung-gyeong ㅣ Last year, when the Corona 19 incident occurred, domestic industrial production declined for the first time since 2000, when statistics began. However, it is evaluated that production, consumption, and investment all recorded positive (+) in December, showing a recovery trend.
According to the’December 2020 and Annual Industrial Activity Trends’ released by the National Statistical Office on the 29th, last year’s total industrial production (raw index, excluding agriculture, forestry and fishing) decreased 0.8% from the previous year. This is the first time since 2000 when we started writing statistics.
The manufacturing industry was improving, but the service industry was sluggish. Manufacturing production increased by 0.5%. Semiconductor (23.9%) led and mechanical equipment (5.5%). On the other hand, automobiles (-10.2%) declined, and mining production turned to a 0.4% increase.
Service industry production fell 2.0%. Accommodations and restaurants (-18.5%), transportation and warehouses (-14.2%), and arts, sports and leisure (-33.0%) were directly hit by social distancing measures. On the other hand, the real estate (5.6%) and finance/insurance (14.0%) sectors increased on the rise of the real estate market and the stock market.
Retail sales, showing consumption trends, declined 0.2%, the largest decline since 2003 (-3.1%). This is the result of an increase in durable goods such as passenger cars (10.9%), but a decrease in sales of semi-durable goods such as clothing (-12.2%) and non-durable goods such as cosmetics (-0.4%).
Facility investment increased by 6.0%. “The production of the face-to-face service industry has greatly decreased due to the impact of Corona 19,” explained Kim Bo-kyung, head of the Industry Trend Division of Statistics Korea.
In December, production, consumption, and investment recorded a’triple increase’. All industrial production increased by 0.5%. However, compared to November (0.8%), the growth rate decreased.
While the manufacturing industry was better than in November, the service industry worsened again in the aftermath of the strengthened distance at the end of the year.
Manufacturing production increased by 3.7%, while mining production increased by 3.7%. Mining production in November was 0.3%. As with the annual indicator, semiconductors (11.6%) and mechanical equipment (10.0%) increased, while automobiles (-8.6%) decreased.
Service industry production fell 1.1%. It turned to negative (-) in 4 months after August (-1.0%). Accommodations and restaurants (-27.3%) also decreased significantly, and transportation and warehouses (-3.2%) and arts, sports, and leisure (-15.8%) were also sluggish.
Consumption also rebounded slightly. Retail sales increased 0.2%, stopping the two consecutive months of decline in October (-1.0%) and November (-0.9%). Semi-durable goods such as clothing (-6.7%) and durable goods such as passenger cars (-1.7%) decreased, but sales of non-durable goods such as food and beverages increased (3.9%).
Facility investment increased by 0.9%. The cyclical fluctuation of the economic coincidence index, which rose for six consecutive months, remained flat, while the cyclical fluctuation of the leading economic index rose 0.5 points for seven consecutive months. It is the longest consecutive increase since it rose for 9 consecutive months from November 2016 to July 2017.
Manager Kim said, “After the re-proliferation of Corona 19 and social distancing, the service industry declined. However, as the semiconductor economy showed a strong increase, the mining industry increased relatively largely, resulting in an increase in all industry production. The base effect of the company and increased consumption of food and beverages have had an impact.