Regardless of record fiscal spending, the South Korean economy remains in its longest doldrums, according to the latest monthly economic evaluation from the economy and finance ministry.

“Exports and investment continued to remain sluggish amid slowdown in the global economic growth from worsening market conditions in the manufacturing and chip sectors,” the Ministry of Economy and Finance said Friday in its monthly economic review named Green Book for September.

“The Korean economy is faced with unrelenting trade woes from Japan’s export curbs and the U.S.-China tariff war, with added geopolitical risks from the recent drone attacks in Saudi Arabia.”

The ministry since April kept a negative tone about the economy and used the word “sluggish” from its report for six straight months, the longest since it started publishing the Green Book in March 2005.

It mentioned “weak” activities in the economy in April and May and then turned bleaker with the term “sluggish” from June to September.

The country’s industrial output in July rose 1.2 percent from a month ago, with a 2.6 percent growth in mining and manufacturing production and a 1.0 percent gain in service output. Facility investment expanded 1.2 percent on month, but construction investment slipped 2.3 percent over the cited period.

But both coincident and leading indicators measuring present and future economic activities to suggest direction of where the business cycle is at or heading remained negative. The coincident index slipped by 0.1 point on month, and the leading indicator 0.3 point.

Exports shriveled 13.6 percent on year to total $44.2 billion in August, extending its downturn for nine months in a row due to reduced chip demand and plunging demand from China.

According to preliminary data, domestic automobile sales dropped 6.8 percent on year in August. Sales of department stores and discount stores, however, added 4.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, with online shopping sales also up 9.2 percent over the cited period.

The country added 425,000 jobs on year in August. Unemployment rate inched down 1 percentage point to 3 percent.

By Sohn Il-seon and Lee Ha-yeon

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]