South Korea Industrial Output Falls 0.3 Percent in May While Vehicle Production and Services Rise

South Korea's industrial production fell 0.3 percent in May from the previous month, Yonhap reported, citing data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The decline was driven mainly by a 3 percent drop in mining and manufacturing output. Semiconductor production fell 10 percent, with the ministry attributing the decrease to a base effect and volume adjustments that reduced shipments of memory chips including DRAM.

Pharmaceutical products output declined 17.5 percent over the same period. Vehicle production rose 2.7 percent. The service sector expanded 1.3 percent, supported by gains in finance and science industries.

Retail sales increased 0.1 percent. Sales of durable goods fell 3.4 percent while non-durable goods sales rose 0.3 percent. Facility investment decreased 0.1 percent.

Investment in the transportation segment rose 0.2 percent while machinery industry investment fell 0.2 percent.