S.Korea's consumer confidence falls for 4 months on U.S. protectionist move

SEOUL, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Confidence among South Korean consumers over economic situations weakened for the fourth consecutive month on worry about U.S. protectionist moves, central bank data showed Tuesday.

The composite consumer sentiment index (CCSI) stood at 108.1 in March, down 0.1 point from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The downward trend continued since December last year as the United States threatened protectionist moves by imposing heavy tariffs on steel imports.

South Korea's trade minister said Monday that the U.S. side had agreed to exempt the country from the steel import tariff in exchange for South Korea's easing environmental, safety regulations on U.S. automobiles.

Seoul also agreed to set a ceiling on its steel exports to the United States at 74 percent of last year's South Korean steel exports to the world's largest economy. It raised concerns about South Korea's export reduction.

GM Korea, a local unit of U.S. carmaker General Motors, announced a plan to one of five factories in South Korea by the end of May, causing concern about job cuts and the consequent reduction in consumer spending.

Consumer sentiment over the current economic situations fell 2 points, with the figure for the prospective economic conditions sliding 1 point.

Inflation expectations, which reflect the outlook among consumers for headline inflation over the next 12 months, came in at 2.6 percent in March, unchanged from the previous month. Enditem