Most Popular
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Actor Jung Woo-sung admits to being father of model Moon Ga-bi’s child
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Wealthy parents ditch Korean passports to get kids into international school
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Man convicted after binge eating to avoid military service
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First snow to fall in Seoul on Wednesday
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Final push to forge UN treaty on plastic pollution set to begin in Busan
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Korea to hold own memorial for forced labor victims, boycotting Japan’s
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Nvidia CEO signals Samsung’s imminent shipment of AI chips
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Industry experts predicts tough choices as NewJeans' ultimatum nears
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Job creation lowest on record among under-30s
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NK troops disguised as 'indigenous' people in Far East for combat against Ukraine: report
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Producer price gain accelerates...in February
South Korea’s producer price growth accelerated in February from the previous month because of a rise in oil prices and public service charges, the central bank said Friday.The producer price index, a barometer of future consumer inflation, gained 3.5 percent in February from a year ago, accelerating from a 3.4 percent on-year growth in the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. The January figure marked the slowest growth pace in 17 months.The on-year gain was largely attributed to an
March 9, 2012
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Import prices of raw materials rise in Feb.
Import prices of key raw materials rose for a second consecutive month in February on a steady rise of petroleum and non-ferrous metal prices, a trade association said Friday.The Korea Importers Association said its price index for imported commodities stood at 387.36 last month, up 16.91 points or 4.56 percent from January. KOIMA uses 1995 as the base year for the benchmark index that covers 56 key imported raw materials, ranging from corn and soybeans to crude oil and aluminum scraps.The assoc
March 9, 2012
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Foreign currency deposits at 5 Korean lenders top $20 bln
Foreign currency-denominated deposits at five South Korean lenders more than doubled from a year ago to $20 billion in February on the back of the local currency‘s ascent against the U.S. dollar, financial industry sources said Friday. According to local sources, the outstanding deposits at five commercial lenders -- Kookmin Bank, Woori Bank, Shinhan Bank, Hana Bank and the state-run Industrial Bank of Korea -- reached $20.36 billion, up 3.2 percent from January.The figure was a 65 percent surge
March 9, 2012
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BOK holds rate steady at 3.25% for ninth month
Rising oil prices feared to add to inflationary pressureThe Bank of Korea held the benchmark rate unchanged at 3.25 percent, extending the stand-pat streak to a ninth month, as its policy-decision panel sees no other enticing option. Korea’s consumer prices rose 3.1 percent on-year in February, within the target band of the central bank, but went up 0.4 percent from the previous month amid growing concerns that inflationary pressure is already building up. The central bank’s policymakers seemed
March 8, 2012
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Seoul shares gain 0.94% on eased Greece woes
South Korean stocks gained 0.94 percent Thursday, as investor sentiment was boosted by news from Greece that the debt-laden country is close to making the debt swap deal with private creditors to avert a default, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark KOSPI advanced 18.61 points to close at 2,000.76, snapping its three-day losing streak. Trading volume was moderate at 449.6 million shares worth 6.24 trillion won ($5.57 billion) with gainers outstripping los
March 8, 2012
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Banks face heavy sanctions for irregular lending
FSS chief says it is time for households to cut spendingThe nation’s top financial regulator has vowed stern punitive action against banks engaged in irregular lending practices.Since he took office as chief of the Financial Supervisory Service on March 27, 2011, Gov. Kwon Hyouk-se has taken the initiative in conducting intensive inquiries into major banks for alleged business irregularities.The regulator’s full-fledged probe has been focused on the allegation that banks urged many individual an
March 8, 2012
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FSS chief says social responsibility required of foreign financial firms
The nation’s chief financial regulator said the foreign investment community needed to have a deeper engagement with charities and causes for their own business interests.“Corporate social responsibility has been a global response exiting the crisis,” Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kwon Hyouk-se said in a recent interview with The Korea Herald.The FSS expects foreign financial institutions to contribute to the community as much as it expects from local companies, he said.He plans to comment
March 8, 2012
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Banks face heavy sanctions for irregular lending
Chief regulator says it is time for households to cut spendingThe nation’s top financial regulator has vowed stern punitive action against banks engaged in irregular lending practices.Since he took office as chief of the Financial Supervisory Service on March 27, 2011, Gov. Kwon Hyouk-se has taken t
March 8, 2012
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FSS chief says social responsibility required of foreign financial firms
The nation’s chief financial regulator said that foreign investment community needs to have a deeper engagement with charities and causes for their own business interests.“Corporate social responsibility has been a global response exiting the crisis,” Financial Supervisory Service Gov. Kwon Hyouk-se
March 8, 2012
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Income gap widens in Korea
Income among the poorest people in South Korea grew at a slower pace than other income earners last year, further widening the overall wealth gap between the haves and have-nots, data showed Thursday.According to the data by Statistics Korea, those in the lowest 10 percent income bracket earned less than the equivalised disposable income of 643,000 won ($572.5) last year. The richest 10 percent earned at least 3.1 million won.Based on the results, the richest income earners made 4.82 times more
March 8, 2012
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Customs agency uncovers tax evasion through oil smuggling
The Korea Customs Service uncovered an oil smuggling case by two distribution entities who dodged some 4.3 billion won in taxes while selling oil from Singapore, the agency said Wednesday.The tax authority arrested one and filed complaints against seven others involved in smuggling 9.45 million liters of base oil used for making lubricant, it said. The Korea Customs Service is after the other three who fled during the investigation process.“We caught a total of 11 people who smuggled unrefined o
March 7, 2012
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Professor Yoon named to head KIF
Prof. Yoon Chang-hyun of University of Seoul has been named chief of the Korea Institute of Finance.The Korea Federation of Banks, the majority shareholder of the state-run KIF, is poised to appoint Yoon to the post in the coming weeks as the incumbent chief Kim Tae-joon will see his term expire this month.The 52-year-old nominee is a professor of Business Administration at University of Seoul and has worked as the secretary of Citizens United for Better Society.He is also known as a conservativ
March 7, 2012
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‘Lone Star may challenge tax on KEB sale’
U.S. private equity firm Lone Star Fund is reviewing measures to challenge a 391.5 billion won ($348 million) withholding tax on its sale of Korea Exchange Bank to Hana Financial Group Inc., a source said Wednesday. The amount equal to 10 percent of Lone Star’s KEB sale proceeds was paid to the National Tax Service on Monday as a withholding tax, a Hana Financial Group official said. “Hana Financial and Lone Star agreed to the fact that the tax must be paid so we paid the withholding tax as sche
March 7, 2012
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Samsung Everland, Kyobo Life unlikely to go for IPO this year
Two Korean heavyweights are now unlikely to get listed on the stock market this year, forcing investors to readjust their bets on the much-anticipated initial public offerings. Samsung Group said on Wednesday that it has no plans to list shares of Samsung Everland, the group’s de facto holding firm, on the local stock market. Separately, industry sources said Kyobo Life Insurance is now expected to halt its plan to pursue an IPO this year in the face of volatile market conditions.“We have no pla
March 7, 2012
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FSS to punish Samsung Card for massive customer data leak
The Financial Supervisory Service is set to take disciplinary action against Samsung Card for leaking customer information.The credit card firm’s CEO Choi Chi-hun also faces a regulatory sanction for allegedly negligent internal control.According to the FSS and police, the personal information of about 1.92 million customers of Samsung Card was leaked by a former employee between January 2010 and August 2011.FSS officials say punitive measures against the company and its CEO are inevitable.The r
March 7, 2012
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Vice Minister Shin warns of foreign capital inflow into bonds
Vice Finance Minister Shin Je-yoon on Wednesday said the inflow of foreign capital into the local bond market is a concern, projecting worries about yet another round of speculative capital inflow. “Foreign investors have been upping their share of Korean bonds and it is a concern,” Shin said at a business forum.Foreign investors in February raised their holdings of Korean bonds by the most since July last year. Their net holding of local bonds rose by 1.8 trillion won ($1.6 billion) to 86 trill
March 7, 2012
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Bank household loans rebound in February
South Korean banks’ household loans rose moderately in February from the previous month on increased demand from households moving to new homes, the central bank said Wednesday. Local banks’ household loans, including home-backed loans and credit loans, reached 452.7 trillion won ($402 billion) as of the end of February, up 0.5 trillion won from a month earlier, according to preliminary data of the Bank of Korea. Lenders’ household loans rebounded in February after dipping by 2.8 trillion won in
March 7, 2012
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Korea‘s economic slowdown ’moderating‘: think tank
South Korea’s economy is slowing down, but its downward pace seems to be “moderating” despite the lingering eurozone debt problems, high oil prices and other cloudy global economic conditions, a state-run think tank said Wednesday.Inflation is also showing signs of stabilizing, easing worries that higher price levels could dampen the country‘s overall economic recovery going forward, according to the Korea Development Institute.“The Korean economy is slowing down at a moderating pace and the inf
March 7, 2012
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Korea‘s money supply grows 0.3% in Jan.
South Korea’s money supply edged up 0.3 percent in January from the previous month on the rise of short-term money trusts, the central bank said Wednesday. The country‘s M2, a narrow measure of the money supply, reached a seasonally adjusted 1,757.6 trillion won ($1.56 trillion) in January, compared with 1,752.1 trillion won the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. Compared with one year earlier, the M2 also expanded 4.9 percent in the month. Since January, the central bank began rele
March 7, 2012
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SMEs facility investment plans near crisis level
Small and medium enterprises in South Korea are planning to scale back their investments in facilities amid a bleak economic outlook, with their plans nearing the level seen in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, a report showed Tuesday.In a survey of 3,070 SMEs by policy lender Industrial Bank of Korea, 32.3 percent of the companies said they have plans for facility investment this year, down 8.7 percentage points from a year earlier.The figure marks the lowest level since 34.
March 6, 2012
