President Park Geun-hye said Thursday that a delegation of South Korean business leaders will visit China next week to explore business opportunities in the world's second-largest economy.The delegation will "have various cooperative opportunities" in Shanghai, China's commercial capital, during her three-day trip to China, said Park.Park made the comment in a video message to the opening ceremony of a South Korean fair in Shanghai.Park is set to leave for China on Wednesday for summit talks wit

Aug. 27, 2015

The South Korean economy seems to be gradually recovering from the fallout of MERS that dealt a huge blow to domestic demand over the past months, a central bank report showed Thursday.The MERS outbreak, the second-largest infection outside Saudi Arabia, claimed 36 lives here. South Korea declared a de facto end to the MERS outbreak on July 28, about two months after it reported its first case on May 20.The fatal respiratory illness sapped private spending by making locals refrain from outside a

Aug. 27, 2015

Bank lending rates for new loans in South Korea continued to fall in July as market rates remained low amid a record-low policy rate, central bank data showed Thursday.The average rate for new loans to households, companies and other organizations came in at 3.43 percent last month, down 0.06 percentage point from June, according to the data compiled by the Bank of Korea.By category, the average lending rate for household loans dipped 0.05 percentage point on-month to 3.17 percent, while that fo

Aug. 27, 2015

The value of foreign securities held by South Korean institutions climbed to a near record high in the second quarter as local asset managers and insurers beefed up their buying of foreign assets and equities, data showed Thursday.The outstanding amount of foreign securities held by institutional investors reached US$115.3 billion as of the end of June, the highest level since the second quarter of 2007,   when it was $116.5 billion, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea.The amo

Aug. 27, 2015

A member of the Bank of Korea's rate-setting board on Wednesday stressed that the country's policymakers should give more weight to job creation, departing from their long-cherished mantra of bolstering growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy.The Korean economy has been grappling with a low growth trend in the face of a slowdown in the global economy and structural reforms being pushed at a snail's pace."I assume it will be very difficult to recover the high growth rates that were seen in the pa

Aug. 26, 2015

South Korea's state-run pension fund has suffered heavy valuation losses from its investment in two Samsung Group units over the past two months as the stocks have plunged after their merger plan was approved by shareholders last month, data showed Wednesday. The National Pension Service -- which holds an 11.6 percent stake in Samsung C&T Corp. and a 5 percent stake in Cheil Industries Inc. -- received keen attention as it held a swing vote for the proposed merger plan.Samsung had faced a strong

Aug. 26, 2015

South Korea plans to cut consumption taxes on cars and large electronics goods temporarily as part of efforts to stimulate anemic consumer spending that is weighing down economic growth, the government said Wednesday.Private consumption has remained in the doldrums since the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in late May. In June, retails sales and the service sector contracted at the sharpest pace since February 2011, with consumption backtracking 0.3 percent from three months earlier."P

Aug. 26, 2015

The South Korean won gained ground against the U.S. dollar for a second straight session on Wednesday after China's rate cut helped lift appetites for risky assets.The local currency was quoted at 1,186.85 to the greenback as of 1:30 p.m., up 8.45 won from the previous session's close. On Tuesday, China slashed its key interest rate for the fifth time since November to buttress up the world's No. 2 economy, whose slowdown fear has triggered turbulence in the global financial market."The local cu

Aug. 26, 2015

Consumer sentiment in South Korea inched up in August, improving for a second straight month, as fears over the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak ebbed, data showed Wednesday.The overall consumer sentiment index reached 102 in August, gaining from 100 in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. A reading below 100 indicates that pessimists outnumber optimists.The index had tumbled below the benchmark 100 in May as the fatal respiratory illness sapped domestic demand by making

Aug. 26, 2015

South Korea's business community welcomed a landmark deal Tuesday on defusing inter-Korean tensions, pledging to rev up efforts to expand economic ties with North Korea.After days of intensive high-level talks, the Koreas agreed to ease tensions sparked by Pyongyang's landmine attack that injured two South Korean soldiers early this month. Calling the agreement a great relief, the Federation of Korean Industries, the lobby for South Korea's family-run conglomerates, said it will push ahead with

Aug. 25, 2015

South Korea's top financial regulator pledged Tuesday to take pre-emptive measures to cushion the fallout from a global stock rout and ease investor jitters.Nagging concerns over China's economic slowdown have rattled the global financial market in recent days, sending local stocks and the South Korean won plunging as foreigners dumped share holdings.The benchmark KOSPI tumbled to a two-year low on a China stock rout on Monday, with the Chinese bourse nosediving more than 8 percent."Recent exter

Aug. 25, 2015

South Korea and Ecuador were set to declare the start of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement Tuesday, with the first round of talks expected before the end of the year.The declaration was to be made at a meeting between the countries' trade ministers in Seoul, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy."Ecuador is expected to become a gateway for our companies to the large Central and South American markets as the country has an FTA with a regional economic bloc of Sou

Aug. 25, 2015

The head of South Korea's largest business lobby on Sunday called for further cooperation with China via the upcoming implementation of the two nations' bilateral free trade pact, as well as through their alliance in a China-led regional bank. "The South Korea-China free trade agreement will help extend our ties into a new source of growth and step up our level of economic cooperation," Huh Chang-soo, head of the Federation of Korean Industries, said during a meeting of business officials from t

Aug. 23, 2015

The South Korean stock market's volatility soared to a yearly high on Friday as investors fret over the ripple effect of military tension with North Korea following an exchange of artillery fire across the western border.   The volatility index for the KOSPI 200, a basket of 200 blue-chip shares listed on the main Seoul bourse, jumped 23.3 percent to close at 18.49 on Friday, marking the highest level since Oct. 17, 2014, data by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency, show

Aug. 21, 2015

As the South Korean currency weakened at a faster pace and emerging economies are rattled by global financial uncertainties, foreigner investors are pulling out their money en masse from the local equity market, data showed Friday.  Snapping their five-month buying streak in June, foreigners dumped a net 2.65 trillion won ($2.24 billion) in the June-July period, according to data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service.  In July alone, offshore investors unloaded a net 2.26 trillion won wo

Aug. 21, 2015

Heightened inter-Korean tension has dealt a fresh blow to the South Korean stock market already stung by concerns over a U.S. interest rate hike and China's currency move, but its impact is likely to be short-lived, analysts said Friday.  Straining frayed bilateral ties further, North Korea fired artillery shells over the western part of the heavily armed border on Thursday, prompting the South to fire back dozens of rounds.  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ratcheted up his offensive by ordering

Aug. 21, 2015

The local currency further weakened late Friday morning from the earlier session, jolted by heightening tension on the peninsula following the exchange of cross-border artillery fire between the two Koreas, analysts said.   The Korean won was changing hands at 1,192.70 won against the U.S. dollar as of 11:20 a.m., down 7.4 won from Thursday's close.  The won declined to the 1,190.00-won mark again, nine days after it dipped to that level following the consecutive yuan devaluations by China's cen

Aug. 21, 2015

South Korea's monthly household spending edged up in the second quarter from a year ago, weighed down by the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a government report showed Friday.  The average household spent just over 3.28 million won ($2,750) per month in the April-June period, up 1 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the report by Statistics Korea.  The average consumption propensity, or the ratio of total consumption spending to disposable income, stood at 71.

Aug. 21, 2015