Sales of Durable Goods Plunge in November

South Korean households and companies are scaling down spending on durable goods as concerns are growing that the economy is slowing at a faster-than-expected pace, Yonhap News reported quoting a report from the National Statistical Office (NSO) Thursday.

Durable goods sales plunged 16.3 percent in November from a year earlier. Durable goods refer to high-priced products such as cars, computers and other equipment that can be used for more than a year.

The sharp decline stemmed mostly from a drop in vehicle sales. Car sales in November dived 39.4 percent from a year earlier, the NSO said. Consumers tend to reduce their spending on expensive goods when the economy is faltering, an NSO official said.

South Korea is currently struggling to maintain growth in the face of the global recession.

The government forecasts the economy to grow about 3 percent this year but some private think tanks say that the fourth largest Asian economy could contract for the first time in 11 years.

In his New Year message, Finance Minister Kang Man-soo said that the economy is faced with an "unprecedented" crisis, predicting that growth would be "tough" to maintain until the first half of this year.