SEOUL - South Korea's manufacturing activity extended declines in June as the coronavirus impact on global demand protracted, while uncertainty over the future development and economic recovery further weighed on business outlook.
The headline index reflected slower rates of contraction in major sub-indexes such as output, new orders and export orders but business conditions remained extremely weak in historical terms due to a long-feared resurgence in coronavirus infections. Given the country's high dependence on foreign trade - with exports making up 33 per cent of 2019 nominal gross domestic product - a growing number of analysts downgraded their economic projections for South Korea this year, with the International Monetary Fund now seeing a 2.1 per cent contraction.