Economics
Koreans Now More Gloomy on Economy Than in Days of MERS, Sewol
- Bank of Korea’s consumer confidence gauge at lowest since 2009
- BOK says sense of uncertainty is fueling negative perceptions
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Consumer confidence in South Korea has plunged to the lowest in more than seven years as a political scandal engulfing the president and some of the nation’s biggest companies casts clouds over the outlook for the economy.
The central bank’s monthly consumer sentiment index fell to 95.8 in November from 101.9 the previous month, indicating rising pessimism, data released Friday show. That puts the gauge below levels seen when a deadly respiratory disease kept local shoppers at home in 2015, and when a ferry sank in 2014, killing about 300 people, many of them school students.