SEOUL, KOREA- Despite the government's declaration of its strong will to reinvigorate the economy, the business sentiment index (BSI) still remained below the benchmark rate for four straight months.The Federation of Korean Industries announced on July 28 that the BSI for August stood at 92.7, based on the survey with Korea's top 600 companies. The August figure is up 2 points from a month ago. However, the BSI remains below the benchmark point 100 for four straight months.

If the BSI is above 100, it indicates that the number of companies which see the economic situation optimistically is higher than those who see it negatively. If the BSI is below 100, there are more companies who see the economic situation negatively than others.

The interest group for large corporations explained that the BSI is affected by the growing worries about China's possible economic slowdown, a prolonged depreciation of the yen, and the continued slump of the domestic market.