Sales at both major discount outlet chains and department stores in South Korea dropped in December from a year earlier, reflecting worsening consumer sentiment, the government said Wednesday.

The combined sales of the country’s three major discount outlet chains ― Lotte Mart, E-Mart and Home plus ― dropped 5 percent on-year in December, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.

This compares with a 3.7 percent on-year gain in December 2011, and also with a 1.7 percent on-year drop in November.

The ministry attributed the drop to the start of the so-called voluntary suspension of business by large outlet stores, which apparently led to a 5.2 percent on-year drop in the number of purchases made at stores owned by the three discount outlet chains last month.

“Sales at discount outlets dropped 5 percent from the same period the year before due to the start of voluntary shutdowns of stores and the cold weather that led to a drop in the overall number of customers,” the ministry said in a press release.

The country’s weather agency earlier said the average temperature had dropped 3.2 degrees from that of an average year to minus 1.7 degrees Celsius last month, making it the second coldest December since 1973.

The number of purchases at department stores, on the other hand, rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier, but the combined sales of the three department store chains also slipped 0.2 percent on-year as the average amount of each purchase shrank 2.3 percent.

The three department store chains are Lotte, Shinsegae and Hyundai. Their combined sales in December 2011 had surged 11 percent on-year.

For the whole of 2012, sales at the three discount outlet chains dipped 3.3 percent on-year with those of the three department store chains shrinking 0.3 percent. (Yonhap News)