Businesses linked to local consumption logged 0.7 percent growth last year, a weak number compared to the 3.1 percent economic expansion posted for the country as a whole, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Sunday.

Retail and wholesale, restaurants and accommodation businesses are the key barometers of the health of domestic consumption. Data from the central bank showed that the gross domestic product for these sectors grew at its slowest since 2009 when it recorded growth of minus 0.3 percent while the country continued to reel from the global financial crisis.

The growth of consumption-related businesses has been moving downhill after reaching 6.6 percent in 2010. It had fallen to 1.9 percent by 2015, recovered briefly to 2.7 percent in 2016 but fell back again last year, the BOK said.