S. Korea's economy faced with rising uncertainty on COVID-19 resurgence: govt report

SEOUL - South Korea's economy was faced with rising uncertainty amid the COVID-19 resurgence here, a government report said Friday.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance said in its monthly economic assessment report, called Green Book, that the COVID-19 resurgence and the tightened social-distancing campaign expanded uncertainty to the domestic economy.

It noted that the improving trend of consumption-related data slowed, while data relevant to export and production was enhanced recently.

The COVID-19 resurged here, with the number of confirmed cases growing in triple digits since Aug 14.

To tackle the virus resurgence, the government tightened its social-distancing guidelines, hitting hard offline retailers and the services industry.

Credit card spending grew 3.4 percent in August from a year earlier, after rising 9.3 percent in June and 4.8 percent in July respectively.

Revenue of department stores declined 7.7 percent in August, after sliding 2.9 percent in the previous month. Sale by discount outlets continued to skid for the fourth consecutive month.

Revenue for online retailers jumped 35.5 percent last month as people refrained from outside activity, such as eating out and shopping.