The government has assessed that South Korea’s domestic demand is showing signs of recovery.
The Finance Ministry made the assessment in its monthly economic evaluation report called the “Green Book” released on Friday.
The ministry said the slump in domestic demand has eased and employment has risen amid a continued recovery in exports and the manufacturing sector.
Up until last month, the government had described domestic demand as being in a slump, but this month, it assessed that such conditions had eased. It marked the first time the government used the term “eased” for domestic demand since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out last year.
A ministry official was quick to add, however, that it’s difficult to say that domestic demand is, in fact, recovering given that the COVID-19 situation has significant impact on such demand.
The ministry also found that credit card spending grew more than 20 percent in March on-year, posting growth for the second consecutive month. Such growth was the highest to be posted since January 2017.
Department store sales surged nearly 63 percent in March, the highest growth since 2005 when the government began issuing the Green Book.