(Adds analyst comment, detail)* Jan factory output +1.0 pct m/m s/adj (Reuters poll +2.0pct)* Jan factory output +4.6 pct y/y (Reuters poll +3.2 pct)By Cynthia Kim and Dahee KimSEOUL, March 2 (Reuters) - South Korea's industrial outputrebounded in January, official data showed on Friday, reflectingstrong export demand for memory chips and petroleum products. A measure of factory utilisation increased slightly to 70.4percent in January from 70.2 percent in December.Economists expect output growth to pare some of these gainsin February, as export growth has done, because of the longLunar New Year holiday. "It seems there were advance orders of cars and othermanufactured goods ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday inFebruary," said Kim Doo-un, an economist at Hana FinancialInvestment, pointing to the slight increase in January's factoryutilisation rate.
Industrial output gained 1 percent in January from Decemberon a seasonally adjusted basis, following a revised 1.7 percentfall a month earlier. The reading came in below the 2 percentgain forecast by economists. In annual terms, factory output in January jumped 4.6percent after a revised 4.6 percent drop in the previous month."Production activities are improving thanks to robustexports," a Statistics Korea official said.
South Korean trade started the year on a high note inJanuary as exports surged 22.2 percent on-year to mark 15straight months of growth. "Industrial production may barely gain in February as therewere fewer working days in the month, but we won't see a sharpdrop," the official added.Car production increased 12.1 percent from December whileoutput of memory chips gained 5.7 percent.From a year earlier, production of electronic components andmachine tools jumped 25.7 percent and 16.4 percent respectively.Output of petroleum products gained 2.1 percent in Januarywhile inventory levels dropped 4.9 percent.
January's service sector output gained 0.8 percent fromprevious month after declining a revised 0.2 percent inDecember.
(Reporting by Cynthia KimEditing by Eric Meijer)
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