Korea: Business confidence deteriorates in October
Business confidence among manufacturing firms fell to 93.0 in October from September’s 96.0. Consequently, the index remained below the 100-point threshold, indicating sustained pessimism among businesses.
Looking at the details of the release, the downtick was largely caused by export-oriented manufacturing firms becoming less optimistic amid the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in the region and more specifically amid the threat to activity posed by the Asian giant’s crackdown on pollution. In addition, overall manufacturing businesses also became less upbeat about prospective sales for the month of October.