[Anchor]

Industrial output remained similar to the previous month, while consumption showed a slowdown. Meanwhile, facility investment recorded its sharpest increase in five months, driven mainly by the semiconductor sector.

Reporter Lee Seong-hoon has the details.

[Reporter]

Total industrial output in July remained flat compared to the previous month.

This is analyzed to be partly due to the base effect following a significant surge in production last June.

Mining and manufacturing production, including the manufacturing sector, edged up by 0.2%.

Driven by the release of new Samsung Electronics smartphones, electronic components production surged by 20.7%, whereas automobile production dropped by 4.5%.

This setback appears to be influenced by the downward correction following a large jump in automobile production the previous month, as well as strikes at Hyundai Motor.

Services production fell by 1.3%.

A decrease in stock trading volume and trading value led to a 4.8% decline in financial and insurance services, while accommodation and food services, as well as arts, sports, and recreation sectors, also underperformed due to heatwaves and frequent rainfall.

Retail sales in July decreased by 2.4%.

This was largely weighed down by a 7.7% drop in durable goods sales, including passenger cars.

On the other hand, facility investment rose by 7.5%, marking the largest increase in five months.

Investment grew in machinery such as semiconductor manufacturing equipment, as well as in transportation equipment including aircraft and ships.

In particular, investments in semiconductor manufacturing equipment continued to rise to expand memory semiconductor production capacity.

Both the coincident index, which indicates current economic conditions, and the leading index, which forecasts future economic trends, rose.

The government assessed that production and investment are maintaining a favorable trajectory, and the recovery trend in consumption is also being sustained.

(Video Editing: Won Hyung-hee)