South Korea industry output growth slows in December

South Korea's industrial production posted its fourth consecutive monthly rise in December, while slowing sharply from the previous month, government data showed Wednesday. Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries rose a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent from a month earlier, weaker than a revised 2.6 percent gain in November, according to Statistics Korea. From a year earlier, the December reading was up 0.8 percent, compared to a revised 3.2 percent rise the previous month. The four months of expansion came after Asia's fourth largest economy logged three consecutive months of declines in factory output from June to August. South Korea's economy, which gets half of its growth from exports, was badly affected by shrinking demand overseas due to the eurozone sovereign-debt crisis and a slowdown in China last year. The economy grew 2.0 percent for the whole of 2012 -- the slowest pace in three years -- compared to 3.6 percent growth in 2011, according to the Bank of Korea.