Korea to expand incentives to curb inflation pressure

Korea will grant more incentives to municipal governments for their anti-inflation efforts in a bid to encourage their cooperation in keeping rising prices from hurting the nation’s overall economy, the top economic policymaker said Thursday.Korea has been wrestling with high inflation, mostly driven by rising oil and food prices. For 2011, the nation’s consumer prices jumped 4 percent from a year earlier, hitting the upper ceiling of the central bank’s 2-4 percent target band.“We will increase

Feb. 23, 2012

Listed firms’ cash dividend sinks 7.2 percent in 2011

Korean listed firms’ cash dividend paid out to their shareholders shrank 7.2 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, largely due to a decrease in the payouts by top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Thursday.The combined cash dividend paid out by 224 firms listed on the main bourse stood at 8.83 trillion won ($7.82 billion) in the 2011 fiscal year as of Feb. 21, compared with 9.52 trillion won in the previous fiscal year, according to the data by the Korea Exchange. The cited firms include t

Feb. 23, 2012

Finance minister voices worries over excessive welfare demands

Korea’s top economic policymaker voiced concerns Thursday over “excessive” welfare demand, saying that such populism-driven policies could end up shifting burdens to future generations.“Excessive welfare deriving from populism dampens the will to work, undermines fiscal soundness and shifts the burden of payment to the next generation,” Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said in a speech at an international forum in Seoul.“Unnecessary welfare benefits handed out now will boomerang on the next generat

Feb. 23, 2012

Samsung Fire to cut premiums on car cover

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., Korea’s largest nonlife insurer, said Thursday it will slash its auto insurance premiums by an average of 2.2 percent.Samsung Fire’s move came after a recent decision by the local financial regulator and the industry to mark down car insurance premiums amid worries over the country’s rising inflation, which has increased the cost of living in the country. The No. 1 nonlife insurer’s proposed rate is 0.1 percentage point lower than it initially offered, accord

Feb. 23, 2012

Samsung Techwin wins order for Saudi plant

Samsung Techwin Co., a South Korean power systems, automation and defense contractor, said Thursday that it won a deal to supply industrial air compressors to a Saudi gas plant.The company, which did not go into details about price, said it will supply 17 compressors that can be used to make gas oil to the Shaybah natural gas liquids plant complex in the Middle Eastern country. The NGL plant is being built by Samsung Engineering Co. Both Samsung Techwin and Samsung E&G are part of the Samsung Gr

Feb. 23, 2012

Automobile parts suppliers gain on Korea-U.S. FTA

Auto parts makers and shipping shares rose on expectations their revenue will rise with the start of Korea-U.S. FTA in a market that barely moved on Wednesday.The KOSPI inched up 0.22 percent to close at 2028.65, with gains led by auto parts maker Mando Corp., Hyundai Mobis Co., each rising 1.85 percent to 165,500 won and 1.62 percent to 281,500 won.The pact, which will take effect on March 15, calls for the elimination of 2.5 percent to 10 percent duties on auto parts. “The 2.5 percent tax on a

Feb. 22, 2012

Korea’s trade to grow 142% by 2026: HSBC

HSBC has predicted that Korea would overtake the U.K. in trade ranking within 15 years by seeing a cumulative growth of 142 percent in trade volume by 2026.The projection for Korea by HSBC Global Connections far surpasses the figure for the world’s trade volume. It forecasts that the world’s trade will expand 86 percent by 2026.“Countries that will see increases in their share of world trade to 2026 include South Korea, which will replace the U.K. as the sixth-largest trading nation due to trade

Feb. 22, 2012

Household credit tops 900 trillion won in Q4

Korea’s household credit surpassed the 900 trillion won ($801 billion) mark in the final quarter of last year, as household loans extended by non-bank institutions increased, the central bank said Wednesday.Household credit totaled a record 912.9 trillion won as of the end of December, up 22.3 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. Compared with one year earlier, the fourth-quarter household credit rose 7.8 percent, with the growth rate decreasing from the two pr

Feb. 22, 2012

KB Financial seeks joint bids for ING Life

KB Financial Group chairman Euh Yoon-dae expressed his willingness to collaborate with Samsung Life Insurance to take over ING Life’s Asia-Pacific operations.“ING Life is operating seven or eight units in the Asia-Pacific region. We have no capability to buy all of them,” he told reporters on Wednesday.If ING Life sells off only the ING Korea unit, KB Financial could participate in the coming bidding as a single bidder, he said.But if the company chooses to sell its entire Asia-Pacific operation

Feb. 22, 2012

NH financial group to debut in March

Nation’s No. 5 lender holds largest sales networksThe National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, will establish a financial group early next month, becoming the nation’s No. 5 lender in the financial industry.The new financial group’s debut reflects the government’s policy to separately operate the credit or financial sector and the economy or farm products marketing sector.The dividing of the business sector will mark the first time in 51 years since Agriculture Bank merged with

Feb. 21, 2012

Shares end flat on Greek rescue

Korean stocks finished almost unchanged on Tuesday, as a Greek rescue deal helped erase earlier losses, but profit-taking by institutional investors weighed down the bourse, analysts said. The local currency rose against the U.S. greenback. After a volatile trading, the benchmark KOSPI shed 0.03 percent, or 0.66 points, to 2,024.24.Trading volume was heavy at 699 million shares worth 5.56 trillion won ($4.95 billion) with losers leading gainers 441 to 377. “The KOSPI posted a seven straight week

Feb. 21, 2012

Private equity funds invest in Korean films, real estate

Private equity funds have increased their holdings in real estate assets and projects related to the boom of the Korean Wave data showed Tuesday. According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, the country’s entire fund market estimated at 311.1 trillion won ($276.9 billion), with the share of private equity funds rising fast. As of Feb. 17, general funds available for retail investors are valued at 201.3 trillion won, down 75 trillion won from April 2009. Private equity funds were wort

Feb. 21, 2012

Short-term external debt falls to lowest in decade: BOK

Korea’s short term external debt in proportion to overall overseas borrowing fell to the lowest level in a decade, the Bank of Korea said Tuesday, in the latest sign that the country’s credit soundness is improving.External debt maturing in less than one year came in at $136.1 billion at the end of December last year, down $3.6 billion from data compiled for the July-September period. The figure in relation to total external debt is 34.2 percent, down 3.7 percentage points from three months earl

Feb. 21, 2012

Insurers to cut auto insurance premiums

Korean non-life insurers will slash auto insurance premiums starting in April after weeks of discussions with the country’s financial regulator, sources said Tuesday. The insurers will decide on the exact rates for the cut and most likely announce them by the end of this month to take effect for new contracts starting in April. The rate cut will likely be between 2-4 percent, the sources said. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co., the country’s top nonlife insurer and its rival Dongbu Insurance C

Feb. 21, 2012

Task force to look into welfare plans touted by political parties

The government has launched a task force to study the feasibility of a recent spate of welfare proposals floated by politicians amid worries that many of them are just intended to woo voters ahead of major elections.Korea is to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in April and December. Political parties are rushing to unveil welfare programs and campaign pledges, many of which policymakers see as “populist” and fiscally “unsustainable.”“From the perspective of fiscal authorities, it is

Feb. 20, 2012