Manufacturing supply grows at a record pace

Korea’s total supply of manufacturing goods both locally produced and imported gained ground at the fastest-ever pace in the first three months of the year on the back of brisk computer chip sales and a sharp rise in imports, government data showed Wednesday.

The manufacturing domestic supply index advanced a record 7.1 percent to 112.4 from a year earlier during the January-March period, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

Korean-made goods added 3 percent year on year, while imported products saw their index jump 16.9 percent over the three-month period.

The index was developed by Statistics Korea last year to measure the total domestic supply of locally produced goods and imported products.

The office said an increase in the index represents a rise in the purchasing power of Korean consumers and producers, and an expansion of the domestic market.

The index for consumer goods rose 3 percent in the first quarter and intermediate goods added 5.4 percent, while capital goods soared 21.9 percent year on year.

A recent boom in semiconductor production lent support to the record performance as the machinery equipment index surged 30.7 percentage points over the one-year period, followed by a 10.1 percentage point gain in electronic goods.

The data also showed that out of the total domestic supply, foreign-made items, including consumer goods, accounted for 32.2 percent in the three-month period, up 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Foreign products took up 56.9 percent of the Korean electronics market over the same period, up 12.6 percentage points from a year earlier, while the market share of imported transportation equipment rose 8.6 percentage points to 55.3 percent. YONHAP