Moody’s retains credit rating on Korea at ‘Aa3’

Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday that it has retained its sovereign credit rating on South Korea at “Aa3.”“Korea has a strong external position, supported by its competitive export industries and large holdings of official foreign exchange reserves that reduce the economy’s vulnerability to external shocks,” Moody’s said in a release. “The rating reflects the country’s very high economic strength ... but moderate susceptibility to event risk from North Korea military

Nov. 20, 2014

Seoul shares end lower on ailing investor sentiment

South Korean stocks lost ground Thursday as conflicting economic signals caused institutions and retail investors to offload holdings. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar. Starting the day on the negative side, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index gave up more ground to end at 1,958.04, down 0.45 percent, or 8.83 points from Wednesday’s close. Trading volume was moderate at 333.78 million shares worth 4.73 trillion won ($4.25 billion), with decliners outpacing advancers 52

Nov. 20, 2014

S. Korea unlikely to achieve growth target this year

South Korea is unlikely to reach its 2014 growth objective as domestic demand remains weak and there are few signs that the growth rate will pick up sharply during the rest of the year, experts said Thursday.In July, the government revised down its growth estimate for 2014 to 3.7 percent from the 4.1 percent that it projected in December last year, citing the latest worsening economic and market situations. The downgraded projection is still above what major think tanks at home and abroad foreca

Nov. 20, 2014

Structural reforms key to achieving sustainable growth: BOK chief

Ongoing expansionary measures taken by many countries to help boost their economies are stop-gap measures for economic rebalancing, the chief of South Korea's central bank said Thursday, stressing that structural reforms are key to preventing future crises and inducing sustainable growth."The recent expansionary macroeconomic policies undertaken in response to the sluggish economic growth are, as I see it, temporary measures, and not ultimate solutions to rebalancing. They serve to mature condit

Nov. 20, 2014

Korea’s producer prices down for 3rd month in October

Producer prices in South Korea declined for a third straight month in October, due mainly to decreasing oil prices and a fall in prices of vegetables and other agricultural goods, central bank data showed Wednesday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, stood at 104.56 in October, slipping 0.7 percent on-year, compared with a 0.5 percent fall in September and a 0.2 percent slide in August, according to the preliminary data by the Bank of Korea.From a month earlier, t

Nov. 19, 2014

Public opinion toward businesses, entrepreneurs improves in 2014: report

Public opinion in South Korea towards businesses and entrepreneurs improved this year compared to 2013, with less people feeling animosity towards companies, a report by a local economic think tank showed Wednesday.According to the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), 65 percent of the 2,000 people surveyed said they held favorable views towards local businesses, up 2 percentage points from the year before.The latest annual findings also showed 60 percent of the respondents saying they like

Nov. 19, 2014

Number of jeonse leases with deposits over W1b rises fivefold

Seoul apartments that cost more than 1 billion won ($910,000) in jeonse deposits, or lump-sum rentals, jumped fivefold in the past five years, a South Korean realtor said Tuesday. Rent deposits of about 11,432 apartments among 1.2 million jeonse leases in Seoul surpassed 1 billion won, an increase of 479 percent from 2,385 apartments in 2009, according to data released by Real Estate Serve.Apartments in Seoul’s posh Gangnam district accounted for most of them at 54 percent, followed by Seocho di

Nov. 18, 2014

Silicon Valley-funded Korean upstart

Inconvenience was what first got Lee Seung-gun, the head of FinTech startup Viva Republica, and his four colleagues to think about creating a mobile transaction app that will somehow mitigate "everybody's pain in their neck." It takes a great deal of patience when it comes to online banking in South Korea. At least a few downloads of security programs is only a start, with typing in the recipient's account details and verifying the sender's ID via a password-based authentication certificate to u

Nov. 18, 2014

Korea to open 60% of food market under FTA with New Zealand

South Korea is set to liberalize its market for nearly 60 percent of agricultural and fishery imports, including beef, from New Zealand under its bilateral free trade agreement with the country in the southwest Pacific, the South Korean government said Monday.Under the proposed FTA, South Korea will completely eliminate its import tariffs on 59.9 percent of farm products from New Zealand over a 10-year period following its implementation, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural

Nov. 17, 2014

Seoul shares trade lower on foreign selling

South Korean stocks traded lower late Monday morning on net selling by foreign and retail investors as the market weighed the impact of the Shanghai-Hong Kong direct stock connect program.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) stood at 1,938.31 as of 11:20 a.m., down 0.35 percent or 6.83 points from Friday's close. The drop comes as the investors can now invest directly between the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets. This move could cause outflow of funds from the KOSPI that c

Nov. 17, 2014

S. Korean part-time workers top 2 mln: data

The number of part-time workers in South Korea has topped the 2-million mark, data showed Monday, as the government is striving to create more jobs amid concerns that Asia's fourth-largest economy may relapse into a slowdown.According to the data compiled by Statistics Korea, the number of part-time workers had reached 2.03 million as of August, up 7.9 percent, or 149,000, from a year earlier.It marked the first time that the number of part-time workers exceeded 2 million. Those workers accounte

Nov. 17, 2014

S. Korea sees proportion of trade with Japan hit all-time low

South Korea saw the proportion of its trade with Japan drop to an all-time low this year amid strained bilateral relations and the yen's continued fall that makes Korean goods less attractive in overseas markets, government data showed Monday.According to the data provided by Statistics Korea and the commerce ministry, South Korea's exports to Japan came to US$24.44 billion during the January-September period, which accounted for 5.7 percent of the country's total overseas shipments.It was the l

Nov. 17, 2014

Mobile stock trading on rise in S. Korea

Stock transactions via mobile gadgets have grown in number in the South Korean market as a rising number of retail investors have opted to use smartphones and tablets for trading, the bourse operator said Monday. Mobile devices accounted for 10.40 percent of total transactions in the main KOSPI market as of Nov. 10, up from 9.28 percent last year, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said. The ratio of mobile trading in the tech-laden KOSDAQ market also jumped from 17.52 percent to 20.95 percent during the

Nov. 17, 2014

Seoul shares likely to trade lower on weak yen

The South Korean stock market is likely to trade lower this week on persistent uncertainties from the stronger Japanese yen, analysts said Saturday.Seoul shares traded higher last week on news of a bilateral free trade agreement with China, a boon for South Korea’s export-oriented economy. China is the country’s biggest trading partner. The market lost its shine later in the week as investors changed to a wait-and-see approach on the trade deal, forecasting that there will be a delay in seeing a

Nov. 16, 2014

Korean companies in China hail Korea-China FTA

A majority of South Korean companies operating in China said a free trade deal signed last week between Seoul and Beijing will have a positive impact on their business, sharpening their price competitiveness, a poll showed Sunday. According to the poll of 153 Korean companies in China by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), 78.4 percent of the respondents said the impact of the two countries’ free trade agreement will be “very positive” or “positive” for their business. South Kor

Nov. 16, 2014

Most S. Korean firms in China hail Korea-China FTA

A majority of South Korean companies operating in China said a free trade deal signed last week between Seoul and Beijing will have a positive impact on their business, sharpening their price competitiveness, a poll showed Sunday. According to the poll of 153 Korean companies in China by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), 78.4 percent of the respondents said the impact of the two countries' free trade agreement will be "very positive" or "positive" for their business. South Kor

Nov. 16, 2014

Chinese, Japanese investors aggressively tap local financial market

Investors from China and Japan have been aggressively tapping the South Korean financial market, industry data showed Sunday, helped by China's recent policy to globalize its financial sector and Japan's monetary easing. In the first 10 months of the year, Japanese investors bought a net 2.8 trillion won (US$2.5 billion) worth of shares on the Seoul bourse, becoming the second-largest investor following U.S. investors who purchased a net 3.6 trillion won worth of shares, according to the data. C

Nov. 16, 2014

S. Korean goods top China's import market

The share of South Korean goods in China's import market reached nearly 10 percent this year, retaining the status as the market leader for a second year, a local think tank said Sunday.In the first nine months of this year, China imported US$140.7 billion worth of South Korean products, or 9.6 percent of its total imports worth $1.47 trillion, according to the Institute for International Trade.South Korea retained its status as the top goods exporter to China for the second consecutive year, wi

Nov. 16, 2014

Korean IPOs forecast to hit 3-year high this year

South Korea’s initial public offering market is expected to reach its highest level in three years this year, as key affiliates of Samsung Group are set to go public, industry data showed Friday.So far this year, 31 newcomers on the main bourse and the tech-laden KOSDAQ have raised a total of 1.08 trillion won ($981 million), according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange.The expected increase will come on the back of several big-cap IPOs and ample liquidity in the local stock market.Samsung S

Nov. 14, 2014