OECD head cites population aging as most daunting challenge for Korea

The most difficult long-term challenge confronting South Korea is population aging, which will likely weigh on the government by raising the overall spending on social welfare, the head of an international organization said Tuesday.Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, asked Seoul to make efforts to better use older workers, saying that the wage peak system is a "positive" step to that end."Perhaps the most difficult is population aging," G

Oct. 25, 2016

Health insurance outlays up 6.6% in 2015

South Korea's health insurance outlays rose to 57.95 trillion won ($50.98 billion) last year, an annual report showed Tuesday, partly on the back of more senior citizens requiring medical attention.According to the report by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and the National Health Insurance Corporation, the total amount to cover medical examinations, hospitalizations and drug purchases rose 6.6 percent on-year in 2015.On average, a South Korean visited a hospital or clinic a to

Oct. 25, 2016

Economic overreliance on China poses multiple risks for South Korea

An organ of the Chinese Communist Party warned last week South Korea would pay the price for agreeing with the US to launch a vice-ministerial consultative body tasked with studying how to improve the implementation of Washington’s extended deterrence against evolving nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.The Global Times said in an editorial Seoul should ask itself whether it could afford to push for the establishment of the envisioned mechanism, which the newspaper suspected might trans

Oct. 24, 2016

1 in 2 college students see worsening job market conditions: survey

One out of every two college students believe job market conditions have worsened this year, while more than half of would-be jobseekers said they wanted to work for a large firm or a public enterprise, a survey showed Monday.In the survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), 52.6 percent of 3,461 students surveyed said job market conditions have deteriorated from a year earlier for fresh college graduates. (Yonhap)Only 2.6 percent answered that conditions have rather improved

Oct. 24, 2016

Debt burden rises for self-employed youths, seniors: report

South Korea's self-employed people in their 20s and 60s run a higher risk of defaulting on loans from financial institutions due to their increased debt burden amid a protracted business slump, a report said Monday.The country's financial authorities thus need to keep a close watch on the potential risk, which could come as a drag on the local financial sector, the Korea Institute of Finance said in the report on household debt.According to the report, the debt-to-income ratio for 20-somethings

Oct. 24, 2016

Property loans make up 40% of bank exposure to self-employed

Real estate-related loans take the lion's share of South Korean banks' lending to self-employed business owners, a report showed Monday, which experts say could pose a systemic threat to the financial system.Twelve local banks' lending to one-man operations came to 185.5 trillion won ($164 billion) as of end-June this year, up 7.8 trillion won from six months earlier and accounting for 18 percent of their total household loans, according to the report by credit appraiser Korea Ratings.Property a

Oct. 24, 2016

Ratio of deficit households hits record low amid slump

A record low number of South Korean households ran a deficit in the second quarter, government data showed Monday, in an apparent sign consumers are tightening their belts amid a long-running economic slump.According to Statistics Korea, 20 percent of households sustained a deficit from April to June, the lowest reading since 2003, when the agency began compiling related data.  This file photo, taken on Aug. 19, 2016, shows a Statistics Korea official giving a briefing on households' income and

Oct. 24, 2016

Shipbuilding, shipping restructuring to cost W31tr: IMF

The cost of restructuring ailing Korean shipbuilders and shipping companies is estimated at 31 trillion won ($27 billion), with the cost projected to be offset after a decade, the International Monetary Fund’s report said Sunday. The report was based on the assumption that the creditors’ losses caused by debt restructuring would reach 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent of GDP along with 0.4 to 0.9 percent of the labor force employment impact. The figure was only calculated for the companies whose times

Oct. 23, 2016

Trade surplus with China halved in 3 years: report

South Korea’s trade surplus with China halved in three years, with the nation’s shipments to the neighboring country also falling for the 15th consecutive month in September, data showed Friday. Raising the alarm in Asia’s fourth-largest economy that heavily depends on exports for its growth, the trade surplus with China plummeted to $9.29 billion in the third quarter of this year from a record-high $17.29 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013.  Exports to the country&rs

Oct. 21, 2016

Exports edge up 1.2% in first 20 days of October

South Korea's exports edged up 1.2 percent in the first 20 days of October from a year earlier, the latest customs data showed Friday.The country's exports totaled $24.99 billion on Oct. 1-20, up from $24.7 billion tallied over the same period last year, according to the Korea Customs Service.It turned around from an 18.2 percent plunge tallied over the first 10 days of the month.A rise in the semiconductor and shipbuilding sectors led the rebound, with exports of chips gaining 2.5 percent on-ye

Oct. 21, 2016

Korea, EU see surge in intellectual property rights exchange

Experts of intellectual property rights gathered for the fourth annual Korea-EU Intellectual Property Rights Conference on Thursday, highlighting the rising exchange of intellectual property rights and sharing recent legal developments in the field. The conference, organized by the European Chamber of Commerce in Korea, drew 200 participants and 25 speakers from both public and private sectors to share information on the current status and recent developments in Korea and Europe as well as tech

Oct. 20, 2016

KIPO vows to offer strategic consulting for UAE

South Korea vowed to provide the United Arab Emirates strategic consulting to establish a patent screening agency there as part of a move to boost global ties in the intellectual property sector, the Korean office said. Korean Intellectual Property Office Commissioner Choi Dong-gyou and Mohammed al-Shihhi, the undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Economy, inked a memorandum of understanding on the strategic consulting at the high-ranking bilateral talks held at the 56th World Intellectual Prope

Oct. 20, 2016

Economically active foreign residents surpass 1m

The number of economically active foreigners in South Korea surpassed 1 million as of May this year for the first time, government data showed Thursday.According to data by Statistics Korea, the total number of foreign residents aged 15 or older came at 1.42 million in May, rising 3.7 percent from a year earlier.Among foreign residents, the number of economically active population inched up 1.9 percent in May from a year earlier to hit over 1 million.The number of foreigners working in Asia’s fo

Oct. 20, 2016

[Monitor] Rising costs for owners living in own home

While overall prices are on a downward trend, the cost of residing in one’s own home has continued to rise.Statistics Korea said the owner-occupied housing price index increased by 2.7 percent between January and September this year compared to the same period last year. The overall consumer price index, meanwhile, increased by 0.9 percent.The owner-occupied housing price index shows changes in the cost of goods and services required to live in one’s own residence and the level of rent that thei

Oct. 19, 2016