6월 산업생산 4.2%↑…생산•소비•투자 '트리플 증가'<br /><br />Factory output, private consumption and corporate investments are some of the leading indicators that have the potential to forecast where an economy is headed.<br />South Korea saw all of those three key numbers improve for the first time in six months last month.<br />Kim Sung-min reports.<br />South Korea's overall industrial output has increased for the first time in 6 months..., with the manufacturing, retail sales and investment sectors all seeing a jump from the previous month.<br />According to Statistics Korea, the country's overall industrial output soared 4-point-2 percent on-month in June.<br />This was largely driven by the production in the mining and manufacturing industries... which saw a seven-point-two percent increase on-month.<br />This figure was its biggest jump since 2009 and was helped by the automobile and semiconductor sectors.<br />Manufacturing exports also saw the biggest on-month increase in 33 years... 9-point-8 percent up from May's figures.<br />"We saw a huge drop in exports in April and May as the outbreak spread across the world. But as the U.S., EU and other major countries started reopening their economies..., exports increased a lot in June."<br />South Korea's retail sales also saw a bump of two-point-four percent..., thanks in part to government policies like relief funds and tax cuts for automobile purchases.<br />"As for the retail sales, they decreased much in February and March and rebounded in April, May and June. Unlike retail and service production, this sector saw a huge jump, up to around the level it was before COVID-19."<br />Facility investment also edged up 5-point-4 percent.<br />However, the director-general of Statistics Korea did say that such figure does not have a strong link with the impact of COVID-19.<br />For the first time in five months, the indices for both current and future business conditions went up.<br />The index for current conditions saw a point-two percentage point increase and the index for future business conditions edged up point-four percent points.<br />While the country seems to have finally escaped the impact of COVID-19, the official said the uncertainty posed by the pandemic is still huge... along with potential risks coming from U.S.-China trade war.<br />Kim Sung-min, Arirang News<br />
