In July, production, consumption, and investment saw a 'triple' increase. It has been five months since industrial indicators rose uniformly, following February of this year. Production increased mainly in the service and mining industries, while consumption rose primarily in telecommunications devices and computers. Facility investment also increased due to a rise in transport equipment and machinery.
According to the '2025 July Industrial Activity Trends' released by the Statistics Korea on the 29th, the overall production index for all industries (2020=100, seasonally adjusted, excluding agriculture, forestry, and fishing) was recorded at 114.4. This represents a 0.3% increase from the previous month, as the construction sector declined by 1.0%. However, production increased in public administration (2.8%), mining (0.3%), and the service industry (0.2%).
Mining production increased by 0.3% compared to the previous month. Among these, manufacturing production rose by 0.2% despite poor performance in the automobile (-7.3%) and semiconductor (-3.6%) sectors. By detailed category, production of electronic components increased by 20.9%, while machinery production grew by 6.5%.
Service industry production increased by 0.2% compared to the previous month. Among the detailed categories, the retail sector (3.3%) and information and communication (3.1%) saw increases, while finance and insurance (-6.0%), professional, scientific and technical services (-2.5%), and real estate (-1.6%) reported declines.
The retail sales index, which indicates consumption of goods, increased by 2.5% compared to the previous month. This marks the largest increase in 29 months since February 2023 (6.1%). Sales increased in durable goods such as telecommunications devices and computers (5.4%), semi-durable goods like clothing, entertainment, hobbies, and sports equipment (2.7%), and non-durable goods like food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, and books and stationery (1.1%).
Investment in facilities increased by 7.9% compared to the previous month, driven by increases in transport equipment and machinery. This marks the first resurgence in facility investment since February of this year, after five months. Investments in transport equipment, including other transport equipment, rose by 18.1%, while investments in machinery such as general industrial machinery rose by 3.7%. However, construction output (constant) decreased by 1.0% compared to the previous month, as civil engineering (10.1%) saw an increase in construction performance, while construction (-4.8%) declined.
Despite the increase in production, consumption, and investment, the coincident composite index, which indicates the current economic situation, fell by 0.1 points (p) compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, the leading composite index, which predicts future economic conditions, rose by 0.5 points (p) from the previous month.