South Korea's retail sales in the first 11 months of last year fell for the first time in 20 years, government data showed Monday. The index for retail sales reached 106.6 on average in November, down 1.4 percent from a year ago, according to the data from Statistics Korea, which compared the January-November average data from 2022 with the same period last year. It is the first decline since 2003, when the index fell 3.1 percent. Sales of semidurable goods, such as clothing, footwear and bags, decreased 2.3 percent, while nondurable items like food, cosmetics and fuel dropped 1.7 percent. Highly durable goods, such as cars, edged up 0.1 percent over the cited period. The rare drop in the retail sales index came from high-flying consumer prices in the recent two years, which have restrained private spending. South Korea's inflation rose 5.1 percent in 2022 and 3.6 percent in 2023. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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