Korea: Forward-looking business confidence falls for November
The Bank of Korea’s forward-looking business confidence indicator (BSI) for the manufacturing sector has registered pessimism among businesses for every month since June 2011. For November 2018, the indicator fell to 72 points from 78 points for October. This left the BSI below both the 100-point threshold—signaling another month of pessimism—and the long-run average reading of 86 points.
A breakdown of the BSI components showed that, for November, businesses were more downbeat about sales and profitability prospects than they were for October. In terms of sales prices specifically, firms were just as pessimistic about prospects for November as they were for October. However, the one area in which businesses felt more upbeat was raw material purchase prices, as they registered a small increase in optimism for November. Meanwhile, confidence among non-manufacturing businesses—the mainstay of the Korean economy—fell from 77 points for October to 75 points for November.