Leading economic indicator in Korea plunges: U.S. research board

Conference Board, a U.S. private economic research institute, said Thursday that Korea's leading index showed a big fall in September.

The New York-based institute said that the indicator stood at 117.6 in September, down 1.4 percentage points from the previous month. The figure rose 1.7 percent to 117.6 in July but dropped 0.3 percentage points to 117.3 a month later.

Korea's economic coincident index rose 0.3 percentage points in July but fell by the same margin in August by a further 0.4 percentage points in September.

Conference Board said the decline indicated that the Korean economy's recent rapid growth was slowing. It also said that the synchronized drop in both indices reflected unrest in the corporate and financial worlds.