SEOUL -- South Korea's industrial output rebounded in June thanks to improved manufacturing activity, official data showed Tuesday.
Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries rose a seasonally adjusted 0.4% from May when it had fallen 0.1%, the state-run Statistics Korea said.
Increasing shipments of oil refinery and machinery products helped offset the impact of shrinking sales of memory chips and mobile devices.
On-year, the output in June was down 2.6% mainly due to falling shipments of cars and mobile devices.
The data comes amid signs of recovery in Asia's fourth-largest economy, which grew at its fastest pace in two years in the April-June period.
Gross domestic product expanded 2.3% in the second quarter from a year earlier, accelerating from the first quarter's 1.5% gain, the Bank of Korea said last week. The latest growth was the strongest pace since the first quarter of 2011.
Seoul's finance ministry in June revised its economic growth forecast upwards from 2.3% to 2.7% for this year, citing the impact of its stimulus policies.
South Korea's export-led economy has been badly hit by shrinking global demand, growing 2% in 2012 -- the slowest growth in three years -- after expanding 3.6% in 2011.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
