South Korea retail sales rose 4.2 per cent in November, the government has revealed.

Statistics Korea says strong demand for consumer goods like electronics, furniture and garments drove the increase.

Retail sales reached 32.27 trillion won (US$27.3 billion) in November, compared with 30.96 trillion won a year ago. But the sales were down very slightly on October’s 10 month high of 32.38 trillion won.

Sales of consumer electronics, computers and mobile phones increased 6.6 per cent year-on-year, and of furniture by 6.1 per cent. Sales of clothing rose 4.5 per cent and of shoes and bags by 4.1 per cent.

But books and stationery sales fell 11.1 per cent.

Department store sales rose 1.7 per cent but discount outlets and supermarket sales fell 1.8 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively.

Convenience stores saw their November sales plunge 10.1 per cent from a year earlier.

Online shopping sales leapt 19.5 per cent to a record 4.97 trillion won in November and their share of the total retail turnover rose from 14.9 per cent in october to 15.4 per cent in November.