Biz sentiment for March turns positive on strong exports in S. Korea

Seoul, Feb 24 (IANS) South Korea’s business sentiment turned positive for March, marking the first rebound in four years, due to the country’s robust exports of chips and automobiles, a poll showed on Tuesday.

The business survey index (BSI) of the country’s top 600 companies by sales stood at 102.7 for next month, according to the monthly poll by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), reports Yonhap news agency.

A reading below 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists, while a figure above the benchmark indicates the opposite. The index had remained below the benchmark for 47 consecutive months through February.

The BSI outlook for the manufacturing sector came to 105.9 for March, rising sharply from 88.1 in February and reaching its highest point since the 108.6 reading in May 2021.

Within manufacturing, the machinery industry reported a reading of 128.6, with the electronics and telecommunication equipment sector posting 113.3.

The BSI outlook for the non-manufacturing sector, however, came to 99.4, remaining pessimistic.

“It is significant that business sentiment, which had been sluggish due to the lingering economic slump, has improved,” Lee Sang-ho, head of the federation’s economic and industrial division, said in the report.

“The National Assembly and the government need to make efforts to keep up with the momentum to revitalise businesses through regulatory reform so that the improvement does not remain a short-term rebound,” Lee added.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s producer prices rose for a fifth consecutive month in January, driven by a marked increase in semiconductor prices and higher agricultural costs, central bank data showed on Tuesday.

The producer price index (PPI), a key gauge of future consumer inflation, climbed 0.6 percent from a month earlier to 122.50 in January, accelerating from a 0.4 per cent rise in December, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The index has increased steadily since September, rising 0.4 per cent that month and 0.3 per cent both in October and November.

From a year earlier, producer prices went up 1.9 per cent in January.

Producer prices serve as a key indicator of future inflation trends, as they affect the prices businesses charge consumers in the months ahead.

—IANS

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