<Anchor>
Statistics are pouring in that a cold wave has begun in our economy as much as the cold windy weather.
In a situation where exports are increasingly difficult, production has also decreased by the largest margin in two and a half years.
This is reporter Cho Ki-ho.
<Reporter> This is the
Dongdaemun Clothing Market in Seoul.
It's the beginning of the year-end special, but the entire market is sluggish.
[Son Yeong-jong/Clothing store owner: Originally, there should be a lot of customers at this time, but there are only five or six people in the entire aisle.
I feel like it's worse now than during Corona.]
This atmosphere was revealed in the October industrial activity trend announced by the National Statistical Office.
Consumption fell 0.2% from the previous month as fewer cars or clothes were bought.
The situation got worse with production down 1.5%.
By sector, mining fell by nearly 10%, while automobiles and machinery fell by around 7%.
It's been 30 months since mining and industrial production has shrunk like this, and it's similar to the economic downturn in the early days of the corona.
Production should increase only when exports increase, but after recording a trade deficit for seven months in a row, exports in October turned to a downward trend in two years.
[Joo Won/Hyundai Economic Research Institute Research Director: The semiconductor industry and exports to the Chinese market are not very good.
Since the global economic situation next year is predicted to be worse than this year, it is highly likely that the current export slump will continue for a considerable period of time next year
. .
With the world economy shrinking, the real estate market slowing in Korea and interest rates continuing to rise, the prospect that next year's economic situation will be more difficult is dominant.
(Video editing: Jo Moo-hwan, VJ: Kim Sang-hyeok)