[Graphic News] Half of salaried workers earn less than W2m a month

Nearly half of salaried workers in Korea take home less than 2 million won ($1,754) a month, with the proportion rising to over 80 percent in restaurant and hospitality businesses, data showed. According to Statistics Korea, the ratio of workers with monthly pay under 2 million won came in at 47.4 percent at the end of last year, continuing its steady decline from 50.7 percent in 2013 and 49.5 percent in 2014. Those earning less than 1 million won account for 12.4 percent, while 35 percent belon

April 28, 2016

Watchdog reviews easing rules on conglomerate designation

The Fair Trade Commission said Thursday it is reviewing easing rules on the designation of large business groups to reduce the number of conglomerates under strict antitrust regulations.The watchdog’s intention to review these rules came just a few days after President Park Geun-hye said in a meeting with local media that the rules on the designation of conglomerates should be changed “in line with reality,” publicly citing Kakao Corp., which was recently included in the FTC watch list. Fair Tra

April 28, 2016

Korea's industrial power consumption inches up in Q1

Korea's industrial electricity sales grew slightly from a year earlier in the first three months of the year on a business recovery in the chip and oil refinery sectors, the government said Thursday.The amount of electricity consumed by the country's industrial sector reached 69.36 billion kilowatt-hours in the January-March period, up 1.5 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.It marked a turnaround from a 1.2-percent on-year drop in the

April 28, 2016

Korea to hold shopping festival for foreign tourists in fall

The Korean government said Thursday it will hold a shopping festival engaging major retailers, manufacturers and traditional markets to draw foreign travelers and boost stagnant domestic consumption. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it will join hands with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to hold the shopping campaign from Sept. 29 to Oct. 31 across the nation. "We will hold various cultural and entertainment events during the period to make it a global festival that co

April 28, 2016

May's extended holiday to drive up travel demand

The latest government decision to designate May 6 as an extra holiday to pave the way for a four-day break is expected to sharply drive up people's leisure activities, as well as their reservations for domestic or overseas travel, local online shopping sites said Thursday. As the government has designated an extra day off between Children's Day on May 5 and the weekend, Koreans are rushing to make reservations for travel to Jeju Island or neighboring countries such as China, Taiwan and Hong Kong

April 28, 2016

Business sentiment up for first time in 7 months

A majority of companies in Korea expect business conditions to improve in May for the first time in seven months, a survey showed Thursday.According to the survey by the Federation of Korean Industries of the top 600 companies in terms of sales, the business survey index for May rose to 102.3, up from the previous month’s 95.7.  Inside a local retailer. (Yonhap)A reading above 100 means more companies are optimistic about future business conditions than pessimistic. This marked the first time si

April 28, 2016

IPMA elects ex-presidential aide Cho Won-dong as its Korea chief

The Korean unit of the International Project Management Association elected former senior Cheong Wa Dae economic adviser Cho Won-dong as its first president early this week.The election took place during an inaugural meeting of IPMA Korea at the Bankers’ Club in Myeong-dong, Seoul, on Monday, the association said. IPMA president Reinhard Wagner (second from left) and IPMA Korea president Cho Won-dong (second from right) pose at the local chapter’s inaugural meeting in Seoul on Monday. (IPMA Kore

April 27, 2016

Korea's consumer sentiment improves in April

Korea's consumer sentiment slightly improved this month from a month earlier with more people also expecting better conditions for their livelihood down the road, central bank data showed Wednesday.The composite consumer sentiment index came to 101 for April, moving up from 100 the previous month and reaching the highest mark since the start of the year, according to data from the Bank of Korea. Consumers at a department store in Seoul (Yonhap)A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessim

April 27, 2016

BOK chief says low interest rate only offers limited impact

The head of Korea's central bank on Wednesday expressed his apparent opposition to lowering the key interest rate too much, saying a low or negative rate may have only a limited, if not adverse, economic impact."We are beginning to see the adverse effects of low interest rates employed since the (2008) financial crisis, such as a drop in the profitability of financial institutes and a rise in private debts," Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said at an international financial forum in Seoul.

April 27, 2016

Korea seeks to boost employment of young people

The government on Wednesday unveiled a set of comprehensive measures to boost employment of young people and women, vowing to help about 40,000 jobseekers land jobs by matching them up with employers and doling out direct payments in exchange for new hirings.The measures came after the unemployment rate for people under 30 reached an all-time high of 9.2 percent last year, with the overall jobless rate hitting a five-year high of 3.6 percent. Job fair in Seoul (Yonhap)Joblessness among the young

April 27, 2016

Youth, female employment needs boosting

Since its launch in 2013, President Park Geun-hye’s administration has put top priority on creating more jobs to achieve a goal of jacking up the country’s employment rate to 70 percent during her five-year term. The budget earmarked to finance various job programs has risen from 10.8 trillion won ($9.4 billion) in 2013 to 15.8 trillion won this year.Such an endeavor has resulted in a steady increase in the number of employees and the employment rate over the past years. As policymakers admit, h

April 27, 2016

Consumer sentiment inches up in April

Korea’s consumer sentiment improved, albeit slightly, to reach the highest level this year in April, with more people expecting better conditions for their livelihood down the road, data showed Wednesday.The Bank of Korea’s composite consumer sentiment index came in at 101 for April, up from 100 the previous month. Bank of Korea (Yonhap)A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessimists, while a reading below the benchmark means the opposite. The index had moved from 100 in January to 98 i

April 27, 2016

Workers' length of service at big firms grows despite slump

The average length of service for employees of Korea's leading companies has been steadily rising in recent years despite a prolonged economic slump and wave of restructuring, data showed Wednesday.According to the data by market researcher CEO Score, the average years of service for workers of 322 major companies grew to 11.6 years in 2015 from 11.3 years a year earlier. The figure stood at 11.1 years in 2013.The duration of service for workers of the nation's top 30 family-controlled conglomer

April 27, 2016

Economic growth slows to 0.4% in Q1

Korea’s economic growth slowed to 0.4 percent on-quarter in the first three months of 2016, equal to the level reported during last year’s deadly outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome. Gross domestic product in the January-March period came in at a seasonally- adjusted 371.8 trillion won, up 0.4 percent from the three months before, preliminary estimates from the Bank of Korea show.  (Yonhap)That is a slowdown from a 0.7 percent expansion in the previous quarter and a return to the level

April 26, 2016

Park mulls quantitative easing program to revive economy

President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that she will positively consider a Korean version of quantitative easing, reviving expectations for drastic new measures to revive the economy. "My stance is that the idea deserves positive consideration,” Park said during a meeting with managing editors from the nation’s major news organizations at Cheong Wa Dae. “I will try to push for it, if deemed required.” President Park Geun-hye (Yonhap)The comments came as the Asia’s fourth-largest economy is estimat

April 26, 2016

Economic growth slows to 0.4% in Q1

Korea’s economic growth slowed to 0.4 percent on-quarter in the first three months of 2016, equal to the level reported during last year’s deadly MERS virus outbreak. Gross domestic product in the January-March period came in at a seasonally- adjusted 371.8 trillion won, up 0.4 percent from the three months before, preliminary estimates from the Bank of Korea show. That is a slowdown from a 0.7 percent expansion in the previous quarter and a return to the level registered in the second quarter o

April 26, 2016

Firms' new employment expected to shrink 4.4%: survey

New recruitment by companies in Korea will likely decline over 4 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, boding ill for jobseekers already having tough time landing work, a survey showed Tuesday. In the survey conducted by the Korea Employers Federation on 336 companies with 100 workers or more, their planned recruitment for this year shrank 4.4 percent from last year.  Job fair in Seoul (Yonhap)By sector, manufacturers' employment will likely decline 4.6 percent on-year, while non-manufacturing co

April 26, 2016

Korea seeks to double imports of Iranian oil

Korea is pushing to more than double its imports of crude and condensates from Iran as part of efforts to boost its oil trade with the Middle Eastern country, industry sources said Tuesday.Seoul and Tehran will likely sign a series of deals on the promotion of the oil trade early next month, when President Park Geun-hye is to make a trip to Iran to promote business ties between the nations, leading a delegation of some 200 businesspeople. (123RF)Her visit, the first of its kind by a Korean presi

April 26, 2016

Minister calls for market-led corporate restructuring

South Korea’s trade minister on Tuesday voiced government support for market and creditor-led restructuring for troubled local firms. “We encourage creditors to take the lead in carrying out restructuring processes based on the market system,” Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan said at a breakfast meeting with the chief executives of 10 large business groups. Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan (Yonhap)“For relatively healthier companies, we will map out legal systems to help them undertake a thorough over

April 26, 2016

South Korea grew at slower pace in Q1

South Korea’s economic growth continued to slow in the first quarter on sluggish exports and weak consumption, preliminary central bank data showed Tuesday.From the previous quarter, the country’s gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the first three months of this year, reflecting a slowdown from the 0.7 percent on-quarter expansion in the final three months of 2015, said the Bank of Korea.  Bank of Korea headquarters in Seoul (Yonhap)From a year earlier, the economy grew 2.7 percent.Broke

April 26, 2016