South Korea's car sale, export and production posted a double-digit fall last month on worry about the COVID-19 outbreak, a government report showed Friday.

The number of automobile production in local factories was 189,235 in February, down 26.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It came as some of auto plants closed down amid the surge here in the confirmed COVID-19 cases last month. The number of infected patients neared 8,000 as of Friday morning.

Local car sale retreated 18.8 percent over the year to 97,897 vehicles in February as the COVID-19 spread weakened domestic demand.

Locally-made car sale plunged 22 percent to 81,064 units, but imported vehicle sale inched up 0.8 percent to 16,833 units last month.

Car export tumbled 25 percent to 123,022 vehicles in the month, and auto parts shipment reduced 10.1 percent to 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Source: Xinhua