Korea's exports growth surge to 3.9%

Manufacturing PMI also rose to 48.2.

According to DBS, the Bank of Korea is widely expected to keep the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 2.75% this week.

Here's more from DBS:

A modest recovery in economic activity is underway, alleviating the pressures facing the central bank to further cut rates.

Industrial production rose 0.6% MoM sa in October, aided by the improvement in export demand and the supply side recovery in the automobile sector. The mild uptrend in economic activity has been sustained in November.

Exports growth accelerated to 3.9% YoY in November from 1.1% in the previous month. Manufacturing PMI rose for the second consecutive month to 48.2.

Admittedly, the recovery remains modest and fragile at the current point, which requires the central bank to maintain policy accommodative in order to fostergrowth and sustain the recovery.

Business sentiment is weak and investment spending has continued to contract, in light of the domestic uncertainties related to the upcoming elections and the external uncertainties surrounding the US fiscal cliff issues. GDP growth in the current quarter will likely remain subpar at the 3% level, a moderate rebound from 0.2% QoQ saar (revised) in 3Q.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia