South Korea's industrial production fell 1.7 percent in January from a month earlier, the largest decline in 22 months, government data showed Monday.
The figure compares with a 1.3 percent gain a month earlier.
According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, the country's statistical office, production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity sectors dropped 3.7 percent last month from the previous month, the sharpest loss since a 10.5 percent fall in December 2008 when the global financial crisis hit the country.
The drop resulted from the "base effect" in December last year when production in those sectors posted the largest expansion since September 2009, a finance ministry official said.
However, the manufacturing production index rose by 1.7 percent in January from a year earlier, the data said.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
