"Small and Medium Businesses Forecast to 'Deteriorate' Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing Business in January Next Year"

Small and medium-sized companies predicted that both manufacturing and non-manufacturing businesses will deteriorate in January next year.

According to a survey of 3,000 SMEs conducted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses between the 11th and 18th, the business outlook index was 68.1, down 4.5 points from this month.

If the index is higher than 100, it means that there are more companies that view the economic outlook positively than those that view it negatively, and if it is lower than 100, the opposite is true.

By industry, manufacturing fell 5.3 points from this month to 74.0, while non-manufacturing fell 4.2 points to 65.5.

This month, sluggish sales were the highest at 46.0%, followed by higher labor costs and higher raw material prices.