Korea needs to take pre-emptive actions against mounting household debt as the sluggish local property market and global economic downturn are contributing to a steady rise in loan delinquency rates, the head of the country’s financial watchdog said Wednesday.“It’s imperative that we take pre-emptive countermeasures against the household debt problem to assure a soft landing as it poses a great risk to our growth,” Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kwon Hyouk-se said during a seminar held in ce

July 4, 2012

Foreign direct investment in South Korea rose to a new high in the first half of the year as the amount from Japan nearly tripled despite a large drop in investment from European Union countries, the government said Wednesday.The amount of new FDI pledged or reported in the January-June period came to $7.11 billion, up 32.5 percent from $5.37 billion for the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.The amount is the highest ever for the first half in the country’s hi

July 4, 2012

Korean banks are likely to tighten their grip on loans in the third quarter as the eurozone debt crisis is upping economic uncertainty, the central bank said Wednesday.An index gauging lending attitudes reached three for the July-September period, compared with seven tallied in the second quarter, according to a survey of 16 local banks conducted by the Bank of Korea.The third-quarter data marked the lowest level since the index came in at minus four in the fourth quarter of 2009, it added.The l

July 4, 2012

South Korean stocks closed 0.35 percent higher on Wednesday as speculations over stimulus measures continued to bolster investor sentiment, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index jumped 6.63 points to 1,874.45, gaining for a second straight session.Trading volume was moderate at 332.6 million shares worth 4.5 trillion won ($4 billion), with gainers outnumbering decliners 451 to 344.“There is strong hope out there that policy

IndustryJuly 4, 2012

Korea’s central bank has limited leeway to cut its key interest rate as Asia’s fourth-largest economy remains dogged by high inflation expectations, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.The IMF said in a report that given sluggish growth, high unemployment and downside risks, more monetary easing should be considered for some advanced economies, with the possible exception of Canada and Korea.The international organization said that for South Korea, “still-elevated inflation expectatio

July 4, 2012

Korea’s financial regulator said Wednesday it will move to reduce commission rates that credit card firms charge merchants in an effort to help ease smaller stores’ financial burdens.The average commission rate will be lowered to 1.9 percent from the current 2.1 percent within this year, benefiting 2.14 million merchants, or 96 percent of the 2.24 million card-accepting stores, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.The watchdog said the measure will likely enable merchants to save 900 b

July 4, 2012

Company vows to further strengthen its cloud and big data businessSK Telecom, Korea’s largest mobile carrier, has opened the first center in the country for monitoring cloud computing data and protection systems for enterprises.The company said Wednesday that it has established the cloud monitoring center within its Cloud Data Center in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, where it will run 24 hours a day throughout the year.The establishment of the center comes after SK Telecom launched the T Cloud Biz se

TechnologyJuly 4, 2012

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest mobile phone maker, expressed disappointment Tuesday at a U.S. court’s rejection of its request to lift a ban on sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets in America.The U.S. District Court of Northern California on Monday turned down Samsung’s request to delay a preliminary injunction against sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices in the U.S. market until it files an appeal.The court issued the injunction last week, accepting Apple Inc.’s claim that Samsung

July 4, 2012

Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Tuesday that it has placed one more company on its watch list that limits mutual investments and loan guarantees.The Fair Trade Commission said the number of corporate affiliates on the list stood at 1,851 of 63 business groups this month, up from 1,850 tallied in the previous month.Eight companies were newly added to the list as they were created or conglomerates bought stakes in other companies.Meanwhile, seven firms were removed from the list, the watchdog note

July 4, 2012

Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. maintained the top spot in the U.S. mobile phone market, strengthening its supremacy as the world’s leading handset manufacturer, data showed Tuesday.The company’s market share in the United States came to 25.7 percent during the three-month average period ending in May, up 0.1 percentage point from three months earlier, according to U.S. analytics firm comScore Inc. The study surveyed around 30,000 smartphone and non-smartphone mobile subscribers aged 1

July 4, 2012

Korea and China began their second round of free trade talks on Tuesday to discuss the scope of the deal and other issues, Seoul’s Trade Ministry said.During the three-day meeting on Korea’s southern island of Jeju, both sides will also discuss how to set up working groups on each segment, according to the ministry.In early May, the two countries announced the launch of formal free trade negotiations, expecting the talks to take two years.The neighboring countries earlier agreed that the talks o

July 4, 2012

South Korean stocks closed 0.35 percent higher on Wednesday as speculations over stimulus measures continued to bolster investor sentiment, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) jumped 6.63 points to 1,874.45, gaining for a second straight session.Trading volume was moderate at 332.6 million shares worth 4.5 trillion

July 4, 2012

Apple Inc. plans to debut a smaller, cheaper iPad by year-end, two people with knowledge of the plans said, to help maintain dominance of the tablet market as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. prepare competing handheld devices.The new model will have a 7-8 inch screen, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because Apple hasn’t made its plans public. The product, which Apple may announce by October, won’t have the high-definition screen featured on the iPad that was released in March, o

TechnologyJuly 4, 2012

A well-preserved squirrel-tailed dinosaur fossil found in Germany suggests all dinosaurs had some sort of feathers, a researcher said.The 150-million-year-old fossil found in a Bavarian limestone quarry dubbed Sciurumimus albersdoerferi was likely a young megalosaur, a group of large, two-legged meat-eating dinosaurs, National Geographic reported Monday.“I was overwhelmed when I first saw it. Even apart from the preservation of feathers, this is certainly one of the most beautiful dinosaur fossi

TechnologyJuly 4, 2012