Sales at South Korea's discount outlets and department stores continued to drop from a year earlier in January, but the decline was largely due to a base effect from the Lunar New Year's holiday, the government said Wednesday.
In January, combined sales at the country's three major discount outlet chains plunged 18.3 percent on-year, with numbers for the three major department store chains also tumbling 11 percent, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.