The nation’s industrial output saw its sharpest drop in 15 months in April.
 
According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, the nation’s industrial output slipped one percent in April from a month earlier.
 
The drop came largely as mining and manufacturing output shrank two-point-two percent. Semiconductor firms’ output, which had led the overall growth, fell more than nine percent.
 
Service industries’ output, meanwhile, climbed only one-tenth of a percent.
 
The statistics agency said that though semiconductor manufacturing has remained sluggish, this doesn’t mean that the growth momentum for industrial output has slowed.