In June 2026, total industrial production, retail sales and facility investment increased.

 

Output increased in the industrial sector (+6.4% m-o-m, +5.8% y-o-y), services (+0.7%, +5.3%) and construction (+4.1%, -4.0%), resulting in an increase in total industrial production (+2.3%, +4.2%).

 

Facility investment moved up (+5.8% m-o-m, +21.7% y-o-y), while retail sales also increased (+2.7%, +4.2%).

 

Exports in July 2026 climbed by 62.8 percent year-on-year, supported by strong exports of semiconductors, computers, and ships. Average daily exports rose by 69.6 percent in July compared to the same month of last year.

 

The consumer sentiment index (CSI) rose by 0.2 points month-on-month to 106.8 in July. The composite business sentiment index (CBSI) went up by 0.8 points to 98.5 and the CBSI outlook for August increased by 1.3 points to 96.5.

 

The cyclical indicator of the coincident composite index for June rose by 0.5 points and the cyclical indicator of the leading composite index increased by 0.9 points.

 

In July, employment growth accelerated, while consumer price growth slowed from the previous month.

 

The number of employed persons grew by 108,000 from a year earlier, while the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 2.6 percent.

 

The consumer price index (CPI) climbed by 2.8 percent year-on-year (3.2% in June → 2.8% in July), while the index excluding food and energy rose by 2.6 percent, the index excluding agricultural products and petroleum products rose by 2.5 percent, and the CPI for living necessities increased by 2.5 percent.

 

In July, stock prices fell, Korean Treasury Bond yields rose, and the Korean won strengthened against the U.S. dollar.

 

In June, both housing prices (+0.33% m-o-m) and Jeonse[1] prices (+0.38% m-o-m) continued to climb.

 

The Korean economy has recently shown stronger signs of recovery, with exports increasing sharply and domestic demand, including consumption, continuing to improve.

 

However, amid persistent uncertainty stemming from the conflict in the Middle East, pressures on livelihoods remain, including inflationary pressures from high oil prices and challenging employment conditions for vulnerable groups and sectors.

 

The global economy continues to grow at a moderate pace, but uncertainties surrounding the conflict in the Middle East and U.S. tariff measures persist.

 

The government will make every effort to minimize the impact of the Middle East conflict by ensuring stable supplies of key items, maintaining price stability and supporting people’s livelihoods, while swiftly implementing the Economic Growth Strategy for the Second Half of 2026 to address structural challenges, including a post-conflict strategy, measures to boost potential growth and efforts to address economic polarization.

 

 

 

Key Statistics

Employment

	2025							2026
	Annual	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
Number of employed  (million)	28.77	29.03	28.97	29.15	29.04	29.05	28.21	27.99	28.41	28.79	28.96	29.16	29.15	29.14
Employment rate  (%)	62.9	63.4	63.3	63.7	63.4	63.4	61.5	61.0	61.8	62.7	63.0	63.3	63.4	63.3
(Seasonally adjusted)	62.9	62.8	62.8	63.1	62.9	62.9	62.7	62.8	63.0	63.0	62.7	62.5	62.6	62.7

Consumer Price Index

                                                                                         (%)

 

Retail Sales

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2024					2025					2026
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2¹
													Apr	May¹	Jun¹
Retail sales	-1.9	-1.2	-0.7	0.4	-0.6	0.3	0.6	-0.6	1.2	0.6	2.4	-1.7	-3.7	0.1	2.7
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-3.0	-1.4	-1.8	-	-0.8	-0.1	1.6	0.9	3.2	2.4	1.4	1.5	4.2

1. Preliminary

Facility Investment Index

(Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2024					2025					2026
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2¹
													May¹	Jun¹
Facility investment index	3.0	-3.0	0.4	6.0	1.8	1.2	-2.2	0.3	0.6	-3.8	13.0	3.6	0.3	5.8
(y-o-y)	-	-1.5	-3.4	11.4	5.6	-	5.4	5.5	1.2	-6.2	9.8	13.0	9.7	21.7

1. Preliminary

  

Construction Completed

 (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

	2024					2025					2026
	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2¹
													May¹	Jun¹
Construction Completed (Constant)	-4.6	4.5	-5.5	-4.6	-4.6	-16.5	-7.2	-2.6	-0.8	-4.1	0.5	0.4	3.7	4.1
(y-o-y)	-	4.1	-3.1	-9.9	-9.5	-	-21.1	-17.3	-11.9	-15.1	-6.1	-4.6	-3.2	-4.0

1. Preliminary

Exports and Imports

 (US$ billion, y-o-y, %)

	2024	2025					2026
	Annual	Annual	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul
Exports	683.61	709.33	159.53	175.13	184.89	189.78	65.85	67.65	87.34	85.74	87.61	102.17	98.89
(y-o-y, %)	8.1	3.8	-2.3	2.1	6.5	8.4	33.9	29.4	50.4	47.7	53.0	70.7	62.8
Average daily exports	2.53	2.64	2.49	2.63	2.59	2.85	2.80	3.56	3.80	3.57	4.27	4.54	4.12
Imports	631.77	631.90	152.84	154.40	162.49	162.16	57.12	51.93	60.68	62.09	60.76	66.08	68.56
(y-o-y, %)	-1.6	-0.0	-1.3	-1.8	1.5	1.4	11.6	7.5	13.8	16.6	20.7	30.0	26.5
Average daily imports	2.34	2.35	2.39	2.32	2.27	2.44	2.43	2.73	2.64	2.59	2.96	2.94	2.86

Industrial Production (Mining, Manufacturing, Electricity and Gas Production)

                (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

  1. Preliminary

  2. Mining, Manufacturing, Electricity and Gas Production

  3. End-point (month, quarter, and year)

  4. Average operation ratio for the month (or quarter)

  

Service Output

           (Percentage change from the previous period, %)

    1. Preliminary

Composite Indices of Coincident and Leading Indicators

                                                                                           (Points)

	2025					2026
	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr¹	May¹	Jun¹
Cyclical indicator of coincident composite index	99.8	99.8	99.4	99.2	99.0	99.0	99.6	100.0	100.2	99.8	100.3
m-o-m (points)	0.2	0.0	-0.4	-0.2	-0.2	0.0	0.6	0.4	0.2	-0.4	0.5
Cyclical indicator of leading composite index	100.9	100.9	100.9	101.1	101.6	102.2	102.8	103.5	104.1	104.8	105.7
m-o-m (points)	0.4	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.9

1. Preliminary

 

Please refer to the attached files.