SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Industrial production in South Korea continued to increase in November, reflecting the country's upbeat economy, a government statistic showed on Wednesday.

    The Korea National Statistics Office released a report saying that total output in the mining and manufacturing sectors increased 17.8 percent last month from the same period of 2008, marking the fifth successive month South Korea saw a rise in industrial production since July, which was the first turnaround in 10 months.

    According to Seoul's Yonhap News Agency, the latest statistics are better than predictions made in a recent poll by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news department of the news agency, which showed a 17.2 expansion rate.

    But the figure does not mean a full-fledged recovery in the country's economy, as it is based a 13.8 percent on-year decline seen in the same month of last year, Yonhap said.

    However, the output in export-oriented industries such as cars and semiconductor equipment makers still keeps increase, it added.

    The South Korean government is considering to raise the country's growth forecast for 2010 as the economy is expected to grow even higher than its earlier projection of a 4-percent expansion.

    According to the country's central bank, gross domestic product(GDP) grew 2.9 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier. The figure marked the highest since the first quarter of 2002 when the GDP advanced at 3.8 percent on quarter.    

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis