On February 2, Kelvin Lam, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, remarked that South Korea's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data reveals that the nation's economic growth continues to be propelled by the technology sector. There has been an expansion in production and a surge in the growth rate of new orders, largely driven by external demand. Buoyed by the artificial intelligence investment frenzy and escalating demand for data centers, the semiconductor industry is acting as a cornerstone for South Korea's economy, with the chip sector sustaining a short-term upward trajectory. Nevertheless, non-chip sectors are underperforming, notably the petrochemical and steel industries, which are grappling with heightened global competition and issues of oversupply. Furthermore, the depreciation of the South Korean won has driven up import costs for manufacturers, yet the ability to pass on these costs to consumers has been constrained.