S. Korea’s inflation to remain subdued for 2020, post-coronavirus era: BOK

South Korea’s consumer price inflation is projected to remain at around zero percent for the remainder of the year, the nation’s central bank said Thursday, citing pandemic risks dampening hopes for the initial goal of an annual 2 percent inflation rate. The annual consumer price inflation is expected to fall 0.1 percentage point on-year to 0.3 percent, weighed on by plummeting oil prices and a slowdown of the global economy following the outbreak of COVID-19, the Bank of Korea not

June 25, 2020

S. Korea to impose tax on all financial investment gains

South Korea will impose a new income tax on all gains made from financial investments, while reducing the securities transaction tax rate, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday. The move came in line with the government’s efforts to alleviate the widening socioeconomic gap here and to revitalize the stalled market amid the COVID-19 fallout. “(The government) will establish a new taxation category for financial investment gains, starting 2022,&rdqu

June 25, 2020

Urban dwellers moving to rural areas down for 2nd year

The number of urban dwellers seeking to resettle in farms or fishing towns has decreased over the past two years, but the new coronavirus pandemic is expected to push the figure back up as more people will search for new job opportunities, data showed Thursday. The number of South Koreans resettling in farms or fishing villages reached 461,879 in 2019, or 329,986 households, according to the data compiled by the agricultural and oceans ministries. It marked a drop from 347,665 and 341,221 hou

June 25, 2020

S. Korea to expand capital gains tax for more retail investors from 2023

SEJONG -- South Korea said Thursday it plans to revise a law to expand capital gains taxes to all stock investors beginning in 2023, while lowering a stock transaction tax. Under the plan, all investors who hold listed stocks will be subject to a tax rate of 20 percent. If they hold stocks worth more than 300 million won ($250,041), the tax rate will be raised to 25 percent. However, the proposed tax revision allows a retail investor to be exempted from a capital gains tax when profits from

June 25, 2020

S. Korea to impose new tax on gains from all financial investment from 2022

SEJONG -- South Korea plans to start levying a new tax on consolidated gains from all financial investment in 2022, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday. In addition, the government plans to levy a capital gains tax on stock investment gains surpassing 20 million won ($16,632) beginning in 2023, Hong said. Currently, South Korea levies a capital gains tax on major shareholders who own more than 1 billion won in a single stock. The tax proposal is aimed at "revitalizing financial i

June 25, 2020

IMF further cuts global economic growth forecast to minus 4.9%

The International Monetary Fund has forecast a contraction of 4.9 percent for the global economy in 2020, citing worse-than-expected economic outputs in the first quarter and a more pessimistic forecast for the second quarter, the Seoul government said Wednesday evening. The figure is down 1.9 percentage point from the earlier estimate in April.  In its World Economic Outlook Update, the IMF also expected that the South Korean economy will post a contraction of 2.1 percent this year, do

June 24, 2020

Lee Seo-jin, IU named PR ambassadors for NTS

National Tax Service Commissioner Kim Hyun-jun (center) poses with actor Lee Seo-jin (left) and singer-actor IU, who were appointed as PR ambassadors of the tax agency in Seoul on Wednesday. The two actors, known as model taxpayers, received presidential citations in March for dutifully paying taxes. Lee said while accepting NTS’ honorary role that honest tax payment is the least donation he can make for all. By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)

June 24, 2020

S. Korea's financial market stable but to face more problems: BOK

South Korea's financial market will continue to be stabilized, but the economic fallout from the new coronavirus pandemic may increasingly become more serious and real down the road, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Wednesday. "While economic activities will gradually resume from the second half of the year, the financial market will continue to be more stabilized, but there is a possibility that the negative impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial system may come to the surface,&q

June 24, 2020

Member nations reaffirm signing of RCEP this year

Trade ministers from 15 nations on Tuesday reaffirmed that a mega Asia-Pacific trade pact will be signed later this year, but India again skipped the negotiations, according to Seoul's trade ministry. ASEAN members and their dialogue partners -- South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- effectively reached an agreement on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) last November, with the goal of signing the pact within this year. However, India did not join last Nov

June 23, 2020

[News Focus] Tokyo’s bid to replace HK threatens Seoul’s dream of becoming financial hub

Turning Seoul into a new financial hub in Asia has for long been a campaign promise of local politicians cutting across party lines. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, who is now in his third term, is no exception. He had even announced plans to replace old apartment buildings with high-rises of up to 50 stories and create more parks and leisure spaces to reinvigorate the city’s financial district Yeouido. But the city’s progress in realizing these yearslong dream is being questioned as

June 23, 2020

S. Korea vows to toughen sanctions on illegal private lenders

The South Korean government on Tuesday unveiled measures to slap sanctions on illegal private lenders to protect local financial consumers from related fraud.  The Financial Services Commission and relevant government agencies announced that they will compose a pangovernmental group to jointly implement countermeasures against illegal private lending here, which normally targets low-income and desperate families, charging high interest rates.  The move came as the country’s il

June 23, 2020

BOK, Kakao Enterprise sign AI technology development deal

South Korea’s central bank said Tuesday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Kakao’s artificial intelligence solutions subsidiary and will adopt the technology for its business and policymaking. The partnership -- which came as part of the Bank of Korea’s mid- to long-term development plan, announced to commemorate its 70th anniversary this year -- marks the first time the central bank has cooperated on technology with a private firm. It has also built antic

June 23, 2020

[News Focus] Jeju Island No. 1 in jobless growth from COVID-19

SEJONG -- South Korea saw the number of recipients of unemployment benefits surge 30.4 percent to 660,464 in only three months in the wake of the novel coronavirus. While the government paid more in benefits to those who lost their jobs in all 17 regions nationwide, data from the Korea Employment Information Service showed disparities among regions. Jeju Province had 8,286 recipients in April, compared with 5,135 in January, when the first coronavirus case was reported in Korea. That is a 61.

June 23, 2020

Finance ministry again urges National Assembly to swiftly approve 3rd extra budget

SEJONG -- Vice Finance Minister An Il-whan on Tuesday urged the National Assembly to swiftly approve the third extra budget to help revive the virus-hit economy, saying the budget is desperately needed to protect jobs amid the pandemic. Earlier this month, South Korea proposed the extra budget of 35.3 trillion won ($29 billion), the third batch meant to help key industries cushion the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic and protect jobs. Lawmakers, however, have failed to begin a bu

June 23, 2020

East Asian nations strengthen emergency liquidity program

SEJONG -- South Korea, China, Japan and 10 Southeast Asian nations strengthened their emergency liquidity program to better cope with possible financial crises, Seoul's finance ministry said Tuesday. The move came after a revised agreement of the regional financial safety net, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM), went into effect earlier in the day, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said in a statement. The 13 nations agreed to revise the agreement in May last ye

June 23, 2020

Financial institutions' social contributions hit record high of over W1tr in 2019

Banks and other financial institutions' social contributions hit a record high in 2019, industry data showed Tuesday. The data released by the Korea Federation of Banks showed 22 financial institutions, including five major retail banks, spent a total of 1.13 trillion won ($935 million) on social contribution activities in 2019. The figure represents a 15 percent hike from 2018 and the highest since 2006, when the Korea Federation of Banks began to collect related data, according to the feder

June 23, 2020

Govt. to resume sale process of Woori Financial in H2

The South Korean government said Tuesday it will seek to sell its 17.25-percent stake in Woori Financial Holdings Co. in the second half of this year, depending on financial market conditions. Last year, the government set up a blueprint for completing the privatization of Woori Financial by 2022 in a bid to recoup public funds that were used to bail out the financial holding group in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial Crisis. The public funds oversight committee, which handles state ass

June 22, 2020

S. Korea, Singapore begin talks on digital trade deal

South Korea and Singapore on Monday kicked off negotiations toward a digital trade deal, Seoul's trade ministry said. South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee and her Singaporean counterpart, Chan Chun Sing, announced the start of negotiations during their videoconference earlier in the day, the ministry said. A digital trade deal includes provisions for non-discriminatory treatment for electronic transactions, easing of barriers on cross-border data flow and consumer protection. If Sout

June 22, 2020

Illegal meat imports down amid stepped-up screening

South Korea's drug safety agency said Monday that illegal meat imports have fallen off sharply since October last year on the back of stepped-up screening efforts to stem the inflow of African swine fever (ASF). The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said it has inspected a total of 1,417 offline food import businesses in the country since October 2019 and found no breaches of the law over meat imports. Prior to the inspections, there were a total of 43 violations between August 2018 and Septem

June 22, 2020

Firms' debt dependency surges in Q1 amid coronavirus-triggered slump

South Korean businesses struggled to stay afloat amid new coronavirus-caused slump in the first quarter, either by borrowing more money or selling their assets to secure much-needed liquidity, a report showed Monday. According to the report from the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), the outstanding debt owed by 623 listed firms here came to 386.7 trillion won ($318.6 billion) as of end-March, up 20 trillion won from three months earlier. The report is based on the analysis of financia

June 22, 2020