Korea: Month-ahead business confidence among manufacturing firms records worst reading in two years
The forward-looking estimate for business confidence among manufacturing firms fell to 75.0 in October from September’s 82.0. October’s result marked the worst performance since October 2020. As such, the index remained entrenched further below the 100-threshold, signaling that businesses were pessimistic.
The forward-looking estimate for business confidence fell among both export-orientated and domestic demand-orientated firms. The fall for export-orientated firms was especially hard, likely connected with the expected weakening of external demand due to a flagging global economy.