South Korean consumer confidence highest in seven years

Well, if in the midst of a global recession, everyone was buying your products because they're seen as affordable but of good quality, of course you'd be confident.

Anyway, there's probably more to it than that:

Gross domestic product expanded 2.6 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace since 2003. The government allocated extra funds and frontloaded the budget in response to the global recession. At the same time, the central bank trimmed the benchmark interest rate by 3.25 percentage points between October and February, the most aggressive easing in a decade.

The Kospi stock index has risen 51 percent this year as investors bet the economy is past its worst. An earlier government report showed sales at the nation’s major department stores, led by Lotte Shopping Co., increased for a sixth consecutive month while factory production climbed for a seventh month in July.

The Asian Development Bank, Citigroup Inc. and Barclays Capital Inc. this week raised their economic growth forecasts for South Korea.

Well, I'm feeling better.