Chaebol companies owned by potential heirs from the business-controlling family make easy money, relying on contracts from affiliate companies, a phenomenon that latest data shows is strengthening despite increased scrutiny. According to an analysis by the Fair Trade Commission of 47 large conglomerates and their 1,274 affiliate companies, intragroup trade accounts for 59.4 percent of all sales at companies wholly owned by the heirs as of end-2015, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier. The share o

Sept. 8, 2016

The money supply in South Korea grew nearly 7 percent on-year in July due to increased deposits, both in local and foreign currencies, by households and companies, the central bank said Thursday.The nation's "M2" totaled 2,348.3 trillion won ($2,147 billion) in July, up 6.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. It marks a 0.7 percent rise from June.M2 is a measure of the money supply counting the currency in circulation, including bank debentures and deposits with a maturi

Sept. 8, 2016

The South Korean economy has hardly shown clear signs of recovery in recent months, as a slight upturn in exports was counterbalanced by slowing private consumption, coupled with rising uncertainties in the face of an imminent US rate hike, a government report said Thursday."Recently, the economy is experiencing a slowdown in domestic demand due to the expiration of a tax-cut program, with exports posting a rebound on one-off factors," the finance ministry said in its monthly economy assessment

Sept. 8, 2016

The fall of Hanjin Shipping, Korea's largest container line, has brought about a global cargo chaos. With many of its vessels unable to dock or unload cargo at ports, owners of the stranded cargo are in a panic. Other Hanjin clients who planned to ship merchandise to the US or elsewhere for the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping seasons are scrambling for alternatives. Global freight rates have soared. But in this Hanjin Shipping crisis, cargo is not the only thing in peril. Korea's drive to re

Sept. 7, 2016

The Investor, the online English-language business news portal by Herald Corp., began providing articles written by an artificial intelligence writer Tuesday. The company’s AI writer, named Herald Robot or HeRo, is the first to provide English-language business news written by an AI program in Korea.HeRo will mainly focus on news regarding corporate performance and finance, stock markets as well as closely monitor changes in the shareholding structures of Korean companies. HeRo will initially pr

Sept. 6, 2016

The South Korean economy is experiencing feeble recovery momentum in recent months as exports and facility investment continue to falter amid a slowdown in domestic consumption, a state-run think tank said Tuesday."Other than the rapid increase in construction investment, overall economic activities have shown little signs of improvement," the Korea Development Institute said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions."With the expiry of the excise tax cut, retail sales moder

Sept. 6, 2016

South Korean households' overseas spending hit a record high in the first half of 2016 from a year earlier on increased outbound travel to neighboring countries, the central bank said Tuesday.South Korean households spent 13.6 trillion won ($12 billion) overseas in the January-June period, up 10.7 percent from the same period last year, the Bank of Korea said.The figure accounts for 3.7 percent of households' total spending in the first half.The first-half data does not include local households'

Sept. 6, 2016

Over 5,000 South Korean citizens have filed a suit against the state-run electric power supplier over its controversial electricity rate system which critics say excessively charges users, their legal representative said Monday.Lawyer Kwak Sang-eon said he filed the suit against the Korea Electric Power Corp. with the Seoul Central District Court earlier on the day, representing a total of 5,368 plaintiffs who seek 500,000 won ($452) in compensation each. The plaintiffs said the power supplier m

Sept. 5, 2016

The Bank of Korea will use an automated system to collect, save and update raw data on exports, imports, output and other economic indicators to help it better project how the nation's economy would perform in coming months, a bank official said Monday. So far, BOK officials have put raw data into the bank's database by hand. A computer-assisted data collection system is expected to help the BOK save time in collecting and saving data. On Monday, the BOK opened a bid to select a company to devis

Sept. 5, 2016

South Korea's anti-corruption commission said Monday the anti-graft law that will go into effect in late September will affect 40,919 organizations, signaling massive changes in gift-exchanging traditions throughout the country.The Kim Young-ran anti-graft law, aims to bring more transparency to workers in certain sectors who should maintain higher ethical standards than ordinary citizens. The Constitutional Court also gave a nod to the law that will be enforced starting on Sept. 28.Under the po

Sept. 5, 2016

Taxes collected from pension funds have increased 25-fold over the past five years, an indication that the people of the baby boom generation have started to retire in large numbers, tax authorities said Monday.The baby boom generation accounts for approximately 14 percent of South Korea's population and refers to people born between 1955 and 1963. Those born in 1955 are likely to have retired over the past four to five years as they turned 57, the average retirement age. Within the generation,

Sept. 5, 2016

The South Korean government will consider expanding the number of ports of call across the globe for national vessels as part of measures to minimize the impact of Hanjin Shipping’s court receivership on the country’s exports. According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Sunday, senior officials from nine economic-related ministries discussed additional measures to deal with the possible impact of the fallout of the country’s largest shipper that applied for a court receivership last Wed

Sept. 4, 2016

Gwangmyeong in western Gyeonggi Province was little more than a small commuter town before Mayor Yang Ki-dae took office in 2010. Six years later, Gwangmyeong has grown into a major city with a population of about 350,000.Now, the mayor aims to turn the city into a global logistics hub. “I am going to walk into an uncharted road to make the dream of a second take-off come true,” Mayor Yang said. As part of such a project, Gwangmyeong inked an agreement in June with Hunchun City, northeast of Chi

Sept. 4, 2016

In Korea’s export-oriented economic model, domestic households have been largely neglected. In order to support large corporations to sell more cars, ships and TVs to global consumers and earn more precious dollars, consumers at home were reduced to a mere source of labor. Using low wages and high savings to channel ample funds into the corporate sector was seen beneficial for the economy. This, according to former Bank of Korea Governor Park Seung, is the root cause of many of Korea’s current e

Sept. 2, 2016

Koreans saw their income shrink in the second quarter of 2016, the first contraction in seven quarters, Bank of Korea data showed Friday. The country’s real gross national income for the three months that ended June 30 fell 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, when the figure rose 3.4 percent on-quarter. The real GNI, as it reflects price changes, is widely used as a gauge of a country’s purchasing power. Deterioration in trading terms is cited as the key reason behind the decreased income. “P

Sept. 2, 2016