KCS provides support for SMEs doing duty-free biz

South Korea’s customs agency said Tuesday that it will expand the floor size of stores run by small- and medium-sized enterprises in its duty-free areas as part of efforts to help boost their business performance.Currently, the size of stores run by SMEs in the customs agency’s duty-free areas stands at 12 percent of the total but the Korea Customs Service said that it will increase the ratio to 25 percent by 2018.The KCS also said that it will increase the ratio of products made by SMEs in Kore

Oct. 22, 2013

Exports to Japan decline amid yen weakness

South Korea's exports to Japan have declined sharply this year as the Japanese yen's weakness, coupled with a stronger Korean won, has reduced demand for Korean goods, data showed on Tuesday.Shipments to Japan declined 13.32 percent on-year in August this year, dropping for the seventh consecutive month, according to the data compiled by the Korea International Trade Association.Exports to Japan accounted for 5.94 percent of South Korea's total outbound shipments in August, also down from 7.7 pe

Oct. 22, 2013

Insurers' loan delinquency ratio rises in Aug.

The delinquency ratio of loans extended by South Korean insurers inched up n August from a month earlier due mainly to growth in both corporate and household loans, the financial regulator said Tuesday. The average bad debt ratio of local life and non-life insurers came to 0.75 percent at the end of August, up 0.03 percentage point from the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Compared with a year earlier, the figure dropped 0.1 percentage point from 0.85 percent

Oct. 22, 2013

NTS collects 5.9 tln won less in tax during Jan.-Aug. period

South Korea's tax agency said Monday that it has collected about 6 trillion won ($5.7 billion) less in taxes on-year during the first eight months of this year as the slowing economic recovery undercut corporate and other revenues. In its briefing to lawmakers ahead of a parliamentary audit session, the National Tax Service (NTS) said that it had collected 129.6 trillion won in national tax during the January-August period, which is 5.9 trillion won less compared with that in the same period a y

Oct. 21, 2013

Seoul shares to continue upward trend on foreign buying next week

SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean stock market is expected to continue its upward trend next week as foreigners are anticipated to maintain their buying rally amid eased woes over the U.S. political impasse, analysts said Saturday.The country's key stock index, the KOSPI, advanced 1 percent this week to close at 2,052.40 on Friday.Earlier this week, the local stock market was dented by concerns stemming from political tension in the U.S. over its debt limit.However, the market returned

Oct. 19, 2013

BOK repeats warning against household debt problems

South Korea's central bank said Friday that household debt could become a potential risk factor for the economy as the rate of debt growth is continuing to outpace that of income.The Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a report for the annual parliamentary audit that it is unlikely household debt will sour massively in the short term and the growth rate of household debt has slowed on the back of the government's efforts to lessen indebtedness problems.However, the central bank warned that since househo

Oct. 18, 2013

Orders for Korean shipyards jump 27% until Sept.

Orders clinched by South Korean shipbuilders jumped significantly in the first nine months of the year from a year earlier, raising hopes that the shipbuilding sector is poised to recover down the road, the government said Thursday.In the first nine months of the year, South Korean shipyards reaped orders for 10.9 million compensated gross tons, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.The figure accounts for 36 percent of total global orders placed during the cited period but fal

Oct. 17, 2013

Korea's producer prices fall for 12th straight month in Sept.

South Korea's producer prices declined for the 12th straight month in September on falls in prices of oil and agricultural products and the local currency's gain against the U.S. dollar, the central bank said Thursday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, slid 1.8 percent in September from a year earlier, compared with a 1.3 percent on-year decline in August, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The September data marked the sharpest on-year fall since a 2.6 percent

Oct. 17, 2013

S. Korea's jobless rate falls to 2.7 pct in Sept.

South Korea's jobless rate fell in September from a month earlier and job creation accelerated, raising hopes that labor market conditions are improving, a government report showed Wednesday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, the jobless rate stood at 2.7 percent last month, down from 3 percent in August. The jobless rate adjusted for inflation also fell to 3 percent from 3.1 percent over the cited period.Job creation is also picking up speed. The number of employed people was 25.47 mi

Oct. 16, 2013

BOK heads calls for building global financial safety nets

NEW YORK (Yonhap News) -- South Korea's top central banker on Tuesday stressed the need to build up global financial safety nets to promote financial stability as an absence of such scheme would deepen global imbalances.Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo said in a forum hosted by Economic Club of New York that the global financial system "needs an effective backstop for global liquidity shortage," expressing hopes that advanced economies should be more active in creating global financial sa

Oct. 15, 2013

China’s biggest reserves jump since 2011 sows capital inflow

China’s foreign-exchange reserves rose last quarter by the most in more than two years, a sign the government’s efforts to protect growth attracted money even as developing nations from India to Indonesia saw capital exit.Reserves were a record $3.66 trillion at the end of September, the People’s Bank of China said yesterday in Beijing, up from $3.5 trillion in June. The median projection was $3.52 trillion in a Bloomberg News survey of seven economists.The data suggest Premier Li Keqiang’s effo

Oct. 15, 2013

U.N.: Global economy struggles to grow

The world economy is still in disarray five years after the financial crash, a new U.N. economic report released Monday said.The U.N. Conference on Trade and Development issued a gloomy assessment of a stagnant global economy.``The global economy is still struggling to return to a strong and sustained growth path,'' UNCTAD reported. The rate of world output was 2.2 percent in 2012, and is forecast to grow at a similar rate in 2013, it said.Developed countries are expected to show the poorest per

Oct. 15, 2013