Industrial output up 14.3% in July

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Industrial output up 14.3% in July

Korea’s industrial output grew at a faster pace in July than in the previous month on brisk overseas sales of semiconductors and liquid-crystal displays, a government report showed yesterday.
Industrial production in Asia’s third-largest economy increased 14.3 percent last month from a year earlier, up from a 7.7 percent rise on-year in June, the National Statistical Office said in the report.
That compares with a 4.9 percent industrial output growth posted in July last year. On a seasonally adjusted basis, industrial output increased 2.1 percent last month, it said.
The growth rate was also the highest since September last year, when it came to 17.6 percent.
“Strong exports of liquid-crystal displays and semiconductors contributed to the industrial production growth in July,” the report said.
Auto production also increased 38.1 percent in July from a year earlier, when major automakers such as Hyundai Motor Co. were holding a months-long strike.
Production of audiovisual and telecommunication equipment increased 12.4 percent in July from a year earlier, while that of semiconductors rose 26.2 percent. Machinery output advanced 7.7 percent.
Shipments rose 14.9 percent in July, while inventories were up 3.1 percent.
Korea’s exports, which account for 40 percent of the country’s economy, grew 20 percent year on year to $30.9 billion in July, thanks to auto and mobile equipment, according to separate government data.
Korea’s economy is forecast to grow 4.6 percent this year on a recovery in private spending and solid exports.
Factories were operating at an average capacity of 83.1 percent in July, compared with 82.7 percent in June. The leading economic indicator, a barometer of the future economic situation, increased to 6 percent in July from 5.6 percent in June, the report showed.
“We expect the economy to continue its expansion trend unless some drastic changes in the economic environment occur inside and outside the country,” said Choi In-keun, head of the office’s economic statistics bureau. Yonhap
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