10.2 Percent Increase of Industrial Production in January

The indexes of object economy in production, shipment, and consumption are rapidly recovering, recording 2-digit increase of the indexes for the first time in past 15 months.

According to the report of the National Statistics, `Trend of Industrial Activity in January,` the industrial production increased by 10.2 percent, which is the highest record since October in 2000, compared to the record in January 2001.

The production rate showed the increase in 3 consecutive months since –1.4 percent in October last year, followed by 5.0 percent in November and 3.3 percent in December.

Shipment (13.6 percent) also recorded the highest since September 2000 (15.3 percent) and the wholesale and retail sales also increased by 7.3 percent.

The average operational rate of the manufacturing industry rose up to 76.4 percent from 71.8 percent of the previous month and the stock ratio of the semiconductors and autos has downed to 72.2 percent from 79.4 percent in December.

The index that shows the current economy had increased for three months until last November (98.9) and was stumbled by the Hyundai Motors strike in December (98.2) but was recovered again in January to 99.2.

Kim Min-Kyung, the director of economy statistics explained, “even after considering 2-3 more working days compared to the last year when the lunar New Year`s day was in January, all indexes of production, shipment, and investment are on the rise. The rise may slow down temporarily by the reduced working days but if the trend of such rise goes on a few months more, it would be the sign for the overall recovery of economy.”

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com