South Korea's major manufacturers are more pessimistic about business conditions for the third quarter due to China's slowing growth and the fallout of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak, a poll showed Sunday.
  

The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry said its business survey index for the July-September period came to 88, down from 97 tallied in the second quarter.
  

The result is based on a survey of 2,400 manufacturing companies nationwide. A reading of under 100 means pessimists outnumber optimists.
  

The manufacturing BSI, which was above par with 103 in the third quarter of 2014, fell to 97 three months later and slipped further to 83 in the first quarter of this year.
  

The KCCI attributed the worsened manufacturing sentiment for the current quarter to a combination of China's economic slowdown, a weak yen and the MERS outbreak.
  

The slowing growth of China, South Korea's largest export market, and the yen's weakness are feared to make a dent in Seoul's exports, its main growth engine. Cars and other major export items of South Korea compete fiercely with Japanese products in overseas markets.
  

The outbreak of the viral disease has dampened consumer spending and led to a plunge in the number of foreign tourists, especially from China, to South Korea.
  

According to the KCCI survey, the subindex for exporting companies came to 91 for the third quarter, higher than the 87 for domestically focused peers. The figure for big businesses stood at 83, compared with 88 for small and medium enterprises. (Yonhap)