South Korea's Factory Output Decline in September

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea's factory output unexpectedly fell in September due to weaker chip production, as reported by government data on Thursday.

The industrial output index dropped 0.2% over the month on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to Statistics Korea, following a rise of 4.4% in the previous month, which marked the fastest growth in a year.

This decline contrasts with the median forecast of a 1.2% increase predicted in a Reuters poll of economists.

Notably, semiconductor production fell by 2.6%.

On a year-on-year basis, the index decreased by 1.3%, compared to gains of 3.8% the month before and the 0.8% expected by economists. This marks the first annual decline since July 2023.