South Korea Oct factory output drops at fastest pace since May 2020
FILE PHOTO: Workers labour on steel frames at a construction site in central Seoul, South Korea, August 29, 2016. Picture taken on August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
SEOUL : South Korea's factory output dropped in October by more than expected and at the fastest pace in nearly 2-1/2 years, government data showed on Wednesday, amid weakening demand due to a global economic slowdown, and aggressive rate hikes.
The country's industrial output fell by a seasonally adjusted 3.5 per cent in October from a month earlier, accelerating from a revised 1.9 per cent decline in September, according to Statistics Korea.
It missed economists' expectations of a 1.0 per cent fall tipped in a Reuters survey and marked the fastest decline since May 2020.
By product, cars and machineries fell 7.3 per cent and 7.9 per cent, respectively, leading the losses.
Output for the services sector fell 0.8 per cent, faster than 0.2 per cent a month before and the fastest since Dec. 2020, while retail sales lost 0.2 per cent.
The country's factory output fell 1.1 per cent on a yearly basis, also below 0.0 per cent expected in the survey, snapping a 12-month streak of annual gains.
