The Economic Information and Education Center (EIEC) of KDI publishes the monthly periodical “Republic of Korea Economic Bulletin” in English to provide information on Korea’s current economic trends, policy issues and various economic news to foreign countries.
The Republic of Korea Economic Bulletin will help you get the updated information related to the overall Korea’s economy every month with the main contents as follows:

Economic Bulletin, July 2021

[Current Economic Trends]
01. Economic activity
02. Financial markets
03. Public finance

[Policy Issue]
01. Economic policies, H2 2021
02. Future cars transition strategies for auto parts companies

[Economic News Briefing]
01. GDP rose 1.9% in Q1 2021
02. Second supplementary budget proposal of 2021
03. Korean FDI posts US $11.22 billion in Q1 2021
04. Government to promote technical cooperation with ASEAN

Overview

Retail sales, services and facility investment improved in April, mining and manufacturing and construction slowing. Employment continued to recover in May and consumer prices rose faster.

Industrial production fell 1.1 percent from the previous month in April due to the strong service sector (up 0.4%, m-o-m and up 8.4%, y-o-y). Mining and manufacturing continued to go down (down 1.6%, m-o-m and up 12.4%, y-o-y). Industrial production rose 8.8 percent year on year.

Retail sales (up 2.3%, m-o-m and up 8.6%, y-o-y) and facility investment (up 3.5%, m-o-m and up 16.8%, y-o-y) improved. Construction investment fell (down 0.8%, m-o-m and down 1.8%, y-o-y).

Exports jumped 45.6 percent year-on-year in May backed by strong chips, petrochemicals and other major products. Average daily exports, an indicator calculated according to the days worked, improved 49.0 percent from a year ago (US $1.62 billion, May 2020 >> US $2.42 billion, May 2021).

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) rose 3.0 points in May to 105.2. The business sentiment index (BSI) for the manufacturing sector stayed flat at 96, and the BSI outlook for June fell 1.0 point to 97.

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for April rose 1.1 points to 101.3, and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index increased 0.4 points to 103.6.

The economy added 619,000 jobs year-on-year in May and the unemployment rate fell 0.5 percentage points from a year ago to 4.0 percent.

Consumer prices rose 2.6 percent year-on-year in May due to high prices of fresh food and oil, as well as a low base effect. Core inflation rose 1.5 percent.

Stock prices rose in May on expectations of economic recovery, both global and local. The won strengthened amid weak dollars, and Korea Treasury yields went up in line with high global interest rates.

Home price growth edged down in May (up 0.71% >> up 0.70%, m-o-m), and Jeonse (lump-sum deposits with no monthly payments) price growth stayed on the same slope (up 0.36% >> up 0.36%, m-o-m).

The economy saw exports and investment continue to recover, as well as domestic demand. April and May job reports presented significant increases.

Major economies’ growth outlook being revised upwards amid expanded vaccine rollouts and fiscal stimulus, inflation worries continue in part due to soaring commodities prices.

The government will draw up its second half economic policies and second extra budget proposal with a focus on helping the economy keep up the recovery momentum and create more jobs, as well as on bolstering pandemic-hit household support and strengthening risk management.

Please click on the Economic Bulletin banner below to see and download the latest full PDF including previous editions.

Printed publications are available at the Information Desk in KDIS Library (3F) and the Display Table in KDI Central Library (5F).

If you have any inquiries, please feel free to contact us.
(KDI Economic Bulletin, +82-44-550-4621, hs.hwang@kdi.re.kr)