SEOUL, KOREA - Koreans' spending has not increased even though their income has. The first-quarter consumption spending turned to a year-on-year negative figure in four years since the first quarter of 2009. According to a report "First Quarter 2013 Household Trend" published by the Korea National Statistical Office, the monthly average income of households with more than two family members was 4,193,000 won, up 1.7 percent from the first quarter in 2012.
This is the 14th quarter for which the figure increased. But its rise stopped far short of the previous quarter's 5.7 percent largely because the earned income portion in the household income that typically accounts for two thirds in the total rose only 2.5 percent.
Of the income, the household spent a monthly average of 2,543,000 won, down 1.0 percent from the same period last year. Park Kyung-ae, National Statistical Office manager responsible for welfare statistics, said, "Since the introduction of the universal child care subsidies early this year, the household consumption spending has declined. If excluding this effect, the first-quarter household spending fell 0.08 percent from the same quarter in 2012."
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