Overview

• July’s Green Book flagged weak consumer spending, sluggish construction investment and deteriorating export conditions as downside risks for a seventh month while omitting “increasing” to soften its assessment.
• Consumer sentiment indexes have risen and domestic credit card spending grew 4.5%, offering a boost to retail prospects.
• Exports rebounded 4.3% year-on-year in June on strong semiconductor demand and a 28.8% surge in Chinese tourist arrivals.
• Over 180,000 jobs were added in June—the sixth month of growth—despite ongoing layoffs in manufacturing and construction.
• Authorities plan to start distributing consumption coupons on July 21 and are fast-tracking a 31.8 trillion-won supplementary budget to reinvigorate spending.