Park calls for closer macroeconomic coordination during G20 summit

South Korean President Park Geun-hye called Thursday for closer macroeconomic coordination among the world's top economies, urging advanced countries to be more careful when changing their monetary policies.Park made the appeal during the opening session of the summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Russia's second-largest city, saying economies around the world are interlinked so much that it is difficult for any one of them to grow alone."In a situation like this where global economies m

Sept. 6, 2013

S. Korea places import ban on all fisheries products from Japan's Fukushima region

South Korea expanded its import ban on Japan's fisheries products to include all fisheries products from the radiation-hit Fukushima and seven other adjacent prefectures, the government said Friday.The move comes as a widespread radiation scare in South Korea is leading to a sharp drop in the consumption of fisheries products."The measure comes as our people's concerns are growing over the fact that hundreds of tons of radiation contaminated water are leaked daily from the site of Japan's nuclea

Sept. 6, 2013

Middle aged women have highest expenses

Koreans in their 40s and 50s spend up to a million won ($910) more than other age brackets on monthly expenses, a study showed. 　“Marketing strategies from now on should target middle-aged females that hold economic power,” said Kim Dong-yeol, a principal researcher at Hyundai Research Institute. The institute carried out a telephone survey of 1,014 Korean adults. 　Among different age groups who participated in the survey, men and women in their 40s spent approximately 2.93 million won a month,

Sept. 5, 2013

S. Korea's economy remains 'subdued' but outlooks improve: KDI

South Korea continues to see its recovery momentum remain "subdued" but the latest indicators are pointing to a "moderate" improvement down the road, a state-run think tank said Thursday."Korea's economy remained subdued, but indicators are increasing turning positive, signaling a moderate improvement," the Korea Development Institute (KDI) said in its monthly report analyzing the latest economic trend. The report is based on major indicators recently unveiled by the government including corpora

Sept. 5, 2013

S. Korea sells $1 bln currency stabilization bonds

South Korea has successfully sold dollar-denominated currency stabilization bonds worth US$1 billion, the finance ministry said Thursday.This comes a day after the ministry said that it launched the official process for the bond sale with the selection of its lead managers."We successfully sold $1 billion worth of dollar-denominated currency stabilization bonds with a 10-year maturity at 1:15 a.m.with a great amount of interest from investors in the U.S., Europe, Asia and across the world," the

Sept. 5, 2013

S. Korea's economic growth hits over 2-year high in Q2

The South Korean economy grew at the fastest pace in over two years in the second quarter, unchanged from an earlier estimate, due to increased fiscal spending, the central bank said Thursday.Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, expanded 1.1 percent in the April-June period from three months earlier, quickening from a 0.8 percent on-quarter gain in the first quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).The data confirmed that the second-quarter dat

Sept. 5, 2013

Hyundai Oilbank enters lubricant market

Hyundai Oilbank Co., South Korea’s fourth-largest refiner, said Wednesday that it has entered the lubricant market by launching new engine oil named XTeer.The refiner said it will produce some 180,000 barrels of engine oil by next year and sell them both at home and abroad. The local lubricant market is estimated at 2.5 trillion won ($2.3 billion), with local refiners such as S-Oil Corp. and GS Caltex Co. holding a combined market share of 45 percent. Hyundai Oilbank started work on the construc

Sept. 4, 2013

S. Korea's GDP growth ranks 117th: CIA report

South Korea ranked 117th in terms of economic growth last year, data showed Wednesday, apparently as the protracted slump in the global economy dealt a harsh blow to the export-reliant country.South Korea's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2 percent in 2012, with its ranking falling 60 notches from two years earlier, according to the World Fact Book released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.Asia's fourth-largest economy grew 6.3 percent to rank 57th among 189 countries in 2010, but

Sept. 4, 2013

S. Korea's ranking in global competitiveness drops to 25th: WEF report

South Korea's ranking in global competitiveness dropped by six notches this year, affected by the prolonged low economic growth trend and the heightened geopolitical risks surrounding the Korean Peninsula, a report showed Wednesday.According to the report compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the competitiveness index for South Korea ranked 25th out of 148 countries surveyed this year, down from 19th a year earlier.This was the lowest since 2004 when the ranking slipped to 29th in the same

Sept. 4, 2013

Korea, China open 7th round of FTA talks

BEIJING (Yonhap News) ― Top South Korean and Chinese negotiators met Tuesday for a seventh round of talks aimed at bridging contentious gaps that so far have prevented major progress in negotiations on a free trade agreement, an official said. Assistant Trade Minister Woo Tae-hee and his Chinese counterpart, Yu Jianhua, kicked off the three-day talks in Weifang in eastern China, said the official at the South Korean embassy in Beijing.In the seventh round, South Korea aims to reach a broader con

Sept. 3, 2013

Sons of Hyosung chairman vie for stakes in flagship firm

Two sons of the chairman of Hyosung Group, a South Korean family-run conglomerate, are competing to secure stakes in the group’s flagship company Hyosung Corp. in a bid to gain control of the group’s management, industry sources and data said Tuesday. According to regulatory filing, Cho Hyun-jun, the eldest son of Cho Suk-rai, chief executive of Hyosung and the group’s chairman, increased his stakes in the flagship company to 9.14 percent from 8.55 percent by buying 206,804 shares last month. Hy

Sept. 3, 2013

A third of builders suffer net loss in H1

Nearly one out of three South Korean listed construction companies posted net losses in the first half of this year, data showed Monday, due to the protracted property slump from home and abroad.According to the data by market researcher FnGuide, 18 out of South Korea’s 58 listed builders posted a net loss in the January-June period, with 13 of them moving inversely to shortfalls from six months earlier.GS Engineering & Construction Co. saw its net loss reach 554.6 billion won ($499.6 million) i

Sept. 2, 2013

Finance, labor ministries to guide public sector on job creation

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Employment and Labor are in the process of reviewing and redrafting their public sector employment road map to come up with new ways to assess the job market, government officials said.This comes as the government seeks greater accuracy in projections for job creation at public agencies, institutions and companies as it sets out to achieve an employment rate of 70 percent over the next four years.Job creation, along with the development of

Sept. 2, 2013

S. Korea's consumer prices grow 1.3 pct on-year in Aug.

South Korea's consumer price growth stayed in the 1-percent range for the 10th straight month in August, a government report showed Monday.The country's consumer price index rose 1.3 percent on-year in August, decelerating from a 1.4 percent gain tallied in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea.The August figure represented the 10th straight month since November that the price growth has stayed in the 1-percent range.The core inflation, which excludes volatile oil and f

Sept. 2, 2013

Korea expands testing to all imported fish

The government plans to expand testing for radioactive contamination to all fish imports as public concerns mount over leaks from the Fukushima plant in Japan, officials said.The state-run National Fishery Products Quality Management Service said the government took the measure as consumers were avoiding fish and seafood for fear of radioactive contamination, dealing a blow to the nation’s fisheries industry.“The government plans from this month to strengthen the radioactive contamination tests

Sept. 1, 2013