Industrial output has declined for a second consecutive month through November due to sluggish exports. 
 
Statistics Korea said Wednesday that industrial output fell by a half percent in November from October.
 
It followed a one-point-three percent on-month decrease in October.
 
Production in mining and manufacturing dropped by two-point-one percent, driven by a nine-point-seven percent decrease in semiconductors and a 20-point-two percent decline in telecommunication appliances.
 
Manufacturing inventory dipped zero-point-eight percent from October, but increased by six-point-two percent from a year earlier.
 
Due in part to mounting inventory, many factories suspended operations last month. This caused the average operation rate of manufacturers to tumble to 72-point-seven percent, a drop of one-point-two percentage points from October. It is the lowest manufacturers’ operating rate since April 2009.
 
Retail sales decreased one-point-one percent, as sales of quasi-durable goods such as clothes and of nondurable goods such as fuel for vehicles both declined.  
 
Both the index indicating the current economy and the index forecasting the economy in the coming months inched down by zero-point-one point.
 
The statistics agency attributed the decline in industrial output to the chronic slump of exports. Exports fell four-point-seven percent in November from a year earlier, extending the streak of on-year export decreases to 11 months.