Manufacturers' domestic supply declines for 2nd straight quarter amid pandemic

All News 12:00 November 06, 2020

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korean manufacturers' domestic supply declined for the second straight quarter in the third quarter, as production remained sluggish amid the new coronavirus outbreak, data showed Friday.

The manufacturing domestic supply index stood at 102.7 in the July-September period, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The third-quarter tally compared with a 4.5 percent on-year drop in the second quarter, when the index fell at the sharpest pace since the third quarter of 2018 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The index, which measures both locally produced goods and imports, serves as a major indicator of the trend of domestic demand.

The index declined for the second consecutive quarter amid the virus outbreak, but the pace of fall eased as production and exports improved, according to the statistics office.

The index of capital goods -- which refers to machinery used in industrial sectors -- rose 5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, after growing 11.4 percent in the second quarter.

The supply for consumer goods added 1.2 percent on-year in the cited period on demand for medicine and autos, compared with a 1.4 percent gain in the second quarter.

But the supply of intermediate goods fell 2.2 percent on-year in the third quarter after sharply falling 10.6 percent three months earlier.