SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's factory production unexpectedly jumped in May, led by cars and chips, official data showed on Friday, while retail sales also rose last month in an encouraging sign for a slowly recovering economy.
The industrial output index rose 3.2% in May on a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, the Statistics Korea data showed, compared with losses of 0.6% in April and 0.8% tipped in a Reuters survey.
The gain also topped the highest estimate of a 2.8% rise in the poll.
By product, output of automobiles jumped 8.7% and semiconductors rose 4.4% over the month, whereas communication devices slumped 16.9%.
The output fell 7.3% on an annual basis, which was also milder than drops of 9.0% in April and 8.5% expected by economists.
The all-industry production index, which includes both the manufacturing and services sectors, rose 1.3% in May on-month, recouping April's 1.3% loss.
Retail sales rose 0.4% in May, after dropping 2.6% in April, which was the worst in five months.
(Reporting by Jihoon LeeEditing by Shri Navaratnam)
