S. Korea halts Canadian beef imports

South Korea on Tuesday suspended quarantine inspections of Canadian beef following the discovery of a mad cow case in the North American country. The agriculture ministry said the move effectively banning imports went into effect four days after Canada confirmed a cow in Alberta was infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. The ministry said the latest BSE case was the "atypical" type and less risky than "typical" cases as it doesn

Dec. 21, 2021

S. Korea to increase investment to double supply of eco-friendly cars

South Korea plans to spend 2.4 trillion won ($2 billion) next year to help double the accumulated sale of hydrogen and electric cars, the finance minister said Tuesday, in the latest move to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the government plans to provide more subsidies and other incentives to increase the supply of zero-emission vehicles. Hong said the government aims to double the accumulated supply of eco-friendly vehicles to 500,000 units next year from an

Dec. 21, 2021

Exports rise 20% in first 20 days of Dec.

South Korea's exports grew 20 percent on-year in the first 20 days of December on the back of solid demand for chips and petroleum products, customs data showed Tuesday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $36.9 billion in the Dec. 1-20 period, compared with $30.7 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. (Yonhap)

Dec. 21, 2021

Producer prices grow for 13th month in November on high energy costs

South Korea's producer prices increased for the 13th straight month in November as a rise in oil and energy prices drove up the costs of manufacturing products, central bank data showed Tuesday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 112.99 in November, up 0.5 percent from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). The reading marked the 13th consecutive month of a rise. Compared with a year earlier, it jumped 9.6 per

Dec. 21, 2021

Banking giants set to deliver record dividends

South Korea’s four major bank holding firms are expected to hand out record-high dividends this year amid their highest net profit estimates buoyed by pandemic recovery, officials said Monday. The total dividends the four companies -- KB Financial Group, Hana Financial Group, Shinhan Financial Group and Woori Financial Group -- would pay is estimated to be 3.8 trillion won ($3.2 billion), about 26 percent of the combined net profit of 14.6 trillion won. “We were asked to refer to 2

Dec. 20, 2021

S. Korea ups 2022 economic growth outlook to 3.1%

South Korea's finance ministry on Monday revised up its 2022 growth outlook for the country's economy to 3.1 percent, saying that exports and private spending will likely gain ground despite heightened economic uncertainty. The government's latest projection is higher than the 3 percent growth forecast made in June, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The ministry's outlook is more upbeat than the 3 percent growth estimates by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Organization for Econ

Dec. 20, 2021

Korea seeks economic normalization next year via tourism boosting, new tech

SEJONG -- South Korea has publicized its goals of attaining full-fledged normalization of the economy beyond the pandemic crisis in 2022, alongside taking the lead in global competition to occupy future businesses. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki highlighted these dual goals during the government’s unveiling of economic policy directions for next year at the Government Complex in Seoul on Monday. In a bid to maximize the economic normalization, the Ministry of Eco

Dec. 20, 2021

KEPCO decides to freeze electricity rate for Q1 of 2022

South Korea's state power firm Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) said Monday it will freeze the country's electricity rates in the first quarter of 2022 amid rising inflation. KEPCO said it has decided to set the adjusted unit fuel cost at zero won per kilowatt-hour for the January-March period of next year, the same as that three months earlier. Late last year, KEPCO adopted a flexible electricity rate system linked to global fuel prices in a move to improve its profitability. It previously

Dec. 20, 2021

Bank holding firms' 2021 dividends expected to hit new high on bumper profits

Dividends by South Korea's four major financial holding firms are expected to hit an all-time high in 2021 as they have decided to return more of their bumper profits to shareholders, sources said Monday. The combined dividend payout of the four is likely to reach around 3.83 trillion won ($3.23 billion) this year, according to the sources and an estimate by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency. It would represent the largest-ever dividend payout by the four holding com

Dec. 20, 2021

What will the Fed’s expected rate hikes mean for Korean market?

The US Federal Reserve recently said it would wrap up its pandemic-era bond purchases in March, signaling as many as three rate hikes by the end of 2022. While the South Korean financial authorities have expressed confidence that the expected rate hikes will have minimal impact on the local market, experts were divided on the matter as of Friday. The nation’s First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-won said Thursday that the US Fed’s latest decision was within market expectations, res

Dec. 17, 2021

PM says gov't mobilizes all possible resources to support small businesses

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Friday the government has mobilized all possible resources to provide additional financial support to small businesses that will be affected by the new virus curbs. Kim spoke at a joint press briefing with economy-related ministers on the government's plan to pay 1 million won ($844) each to 3.2 million small business owners following its announcement of stricter social distancing measures the previous day. "We came up with additional support measures that

Dec. 17, 2021

Virus flare-up feared to hurt domestic demand: finance ministry

South Korea's domestic demand is feared to lose steam amid the latest upsurge in COVID-19 cases and tighter antivirus measures, the finance ministry said Friday. Amid global inflation risks and supply chain disruptions, Asia's fourth-largest economy faces persisting uncertainty due to the spread of the omicron variant and major economies' move to accelerate monetary policy shifts, the ministry said in its monthly economic assessment report, called the Green Book. "The country's exports re

Dec. 17, 2021

Q3 overseas direct investment rises at steepest pace in nearly 5 years

South Korea's overseas direct investment rose at the fastest pace in nearly five years in the third quarter amid the global economic recovery, data showed Friday. South Korean companies' overseas investments came to $17.01 billion in the July-September period, up 58.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It marked the fastest on-year gain since the fourth quarter of 2016, when it grew 58.3 percent. The third-quarter growth rate was also

Dec. 17, 2021

’High inflation could hinder Korea’s sustainable economic growth': BOK chief

South Korea’s central bank chief expressed concerns of high inflation Thursday, saying it could pose as a major hurdle for the economy’s sustainable growth. “If the sentiment surrounding inflation expectations continues to sour, the ties between wages and inflation could drive up inflationary pressure, as observed in other economies,” Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said in a press briefing. “The longstanding high inflation could hinder households’ purchasin

Dec. 16, 2021

Builders' 2020 sales fall for first time in 21 years on pandemic

South Korean construction companies' sales dropped on-year in 2020 for the first time in 21 years due to the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Thursday. The combined top line of local builders reached 396.9 trillion won ($336 billion) last year, down 1.1 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marks the first on-year decline since the 11.1 percent decrease recorded in 1999 in the wake of the country's foreign exchange crisis. Their domestic s

Dec. 16, 2021

Income gap narrows to record low in 2020 on emergency cash handouts

The income gap between the haves and have-nots in South Korea narrowed to a record low in 2020 on the back of the government's provision of emergency cash handouts amid the pandemic, data showed Thursday. The Gini coefficient measured with disposable income, a gauge of income inequality, came in at 0.331 last year, down from 0.339 the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. A reading of zero means complete income equality, while higher numbers nearing one indicate a widenin

Dec. 16, 2021

S. Korea's 2022 economic growth target set at early 3% range: finance minister

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Thursday the government plans to make efforts to help the country's economy grow in the early 3 percent range next year amid heightened economic uncertainty. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said the country plans to focus on boosting domestic demand and conducting fiscal spending in the fourth quarter to achieve the 4 percent range growth target for this year. The finance ministry plans to unveil its 2022 economic policy directions next week. Hong said

Dec. 16, 2021

Tally for unemployed falls to 730,000 in Nov.: data

SEJONG -- The number of employed in the nation increased by 553,000 in November, compared to a year earlier, continuing improvement in the hiring index over the past few months, state data showed Wednesday. But the number of de facto jobless -- unemployed plus underemployed -- still surpassed 3 million, with the actual jobless rate reaching 11 percent. The Ministry of Economy and Finance maintained that the “official” tally for the jobless and jobless rate stayed at 734,000 and 2.6

Dec. 15, 2021

Regulator approves restart of nuclear reactor after maintenance

South Korea's nuclear safety watchdog on Wednesday approved the restart of a nuclear reactor in the country's southwestern nuclear complex that was shut down for an inspection. The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said it has given the go-ahead to restart the Wolsong No. 4, 700-megawatt reactor, in Gyeongju, 371 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The Wolsong No. 4 nuclear power reactor, which first started operations in 1999, has been shut down since Oct. 10 for regular maintenance. The com

Dec. 15, 2021

Use of robots results in 'meaningful' decline in human labor demand in manufacturing: BOK report

Expanded use of robots has resulted in a "meaningful" decline in demand for human labor in the manufacturing industry while replacing mostly "routine" and "repetitive" jobs, a central bank report said Wednesday. The Bank of Korea's report was based on data related to introduction of robots in industries and the impact on employment from 2010-2019. It analyzed the net effect of the "displacement effect" in which robots replace workers and "productivit

Dec. 15, 2021