I didn't buy clothes first because of sluggish domestic demand.The economic waist is "stumbling."

[Anchor]
As the economic downturn continued, consumers began to spend less on clothes and shoes.

As a result of this, the waist of our economy and the income of self-employed people in their 40s have also decreased the most.

This is reporter Park Ki-wan.

[Reporter]
The first thing the common people tightened their belts in a difficult economy was to wear them.

The share of spending on clothing and shoes has fluctuated this year, but fell below 4% in the third quarter.

There is also an aftermath of the late heat, but consumers' concerns to reduce spending at least a little have affected it.

[Cho Hyun-joo / Jamsil 4-dong, Seoul: We go to outlets a lot these days. I used to buy it at a department store in the past, but I think they use the lowest price on the Internet or use outlets a lot.]

As housing and dining out prices rise, food expenditures such as meat are reduced all at once, and cars and mobile phones are being used longer.

When consumers closed their wallets, self-employed people were hit directly.

Right now, the waist of the Korean economy, which has a high proportion of wholesale and retail businesses, and the business income of households in their 40s plunged 13%, the largest ever.

[Chae Man-jin / Self-employed in their 40s: Compared to last year, (sales) have decreased by 15 to 20 percent. It is maintained as foreign tourists on weekends, but the number of customers decreases sharply on weekdays.]

In the meantime, an international organization predicted that the Korean economy will not grow as much as the capacity of the Korean economy for six consecutive years until next year.

Analysts say that it has entered a structural recession.

[Cho Young-moo / Researcher at LG Management Research Institute: As the effect of overcoming this by investing money is gradually decreasing, the key is whether we can overcome this by accelerating productivity and innovation.]

On top of that, as external uncertainties such as China's pursuit and U.S. tariff policies have grown, our economy seems to have shrunk to the fullest in the cold wave.

I'm Park Kiwan of YTN.

Reporter:
Filming: Kim Hyun-mi
Design: Baek Seung-min