Consumers drag their feet: Retail sales take a 1.7% hit in February

A pedestrian walks past a shoe store in the shopping district of Myeong-dong, central Seoul, on April 1.

With the sluggish economy weighed down by global and domestic instability driven by U.S. tariff threats and President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment, the semidurable retail sales index — tracking the consumption of products like shoes, clothing and bags — fell 1.7 percent in February from the previous month.