South Korean manufacturers' business sentiments will remain weak next month as they expect no big improvement in domestic demand, central bank data showed Friday.

The business survey index of manufacturing firms here came to 71 for the upcoming month, down from 72 for July, according to the Bank of Korea.


The BSI for August marks the lowest level since 70 registered for April. A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists, while a reading below the benchmark means the opposite.

An index measuring local firms' sentiment toward exports came to 85 for August, down from 86 in the previous month.

A separate index for domestic sales stood at 81 for next month, unchanged from the previous month.

Amid an anticipated increase in overall sales, local companies also expected their profitability to go up, registering a BIS reading of 87 for August compared with 86 for this month, according to the BOK.

The BSI of non-manufacturing firms slipped to 70 for next month from 72 for July.

In a separate survey released Wednesday, a local consumers' sentiment index came to 101 in July, meaning optimists outnumber pessimists. (Yonhap)