Korea vows no concessions in farm sector in talks with US to amend FTA

South Korea's new agriculture minister has said the Seoul government will not make concessions in the farm sector in talks with the United States to amend a bilateral free trade agreement.In an interview with Yonhap News Agency arranged Tuesday, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Kim Yung-rok also signaled his willingness to reduce imports of rice.The US has notified South Korea of plans to begin talks on revising the 5-year-old free trade deal, months after US President Donald said he

July 20, 2017

Koreans take 5.5 local trips in 2016, slightly more than previous year

South Koreans took an average 5.5 local trips last year, spending 586,495 won ($522), travel-related data showed Thursday.Data from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said among 43.9 million people aged 15 and over, 39.29 million, or 89.5 percent, traveled domestically last year, up 1.6 percentage points from 2015.The travelers made an average 5.51 trips during the year, 9.4 days in total, according to the data. Women were more frequent travelers (5.82 times) than men (5.19 times), and

July 20, 2017

More youths spending less time searching for jobs

More unemployed young people are using their free time for personal activities rather than actively searching for jobs, data analysis showed Thursday, a trend that may be a sign that they have given up finding work.Statistics Korea took a supplementary survey last month on 1.47 million young people between 15 to 34 to ask how they spend their time. The survey results show that 35.4 percent were preparing to take tests that can lead to their employment. The same survey found that 5 percent of the

July 20, 2017

KCCI chairman urges voluntary changes in businesses, more jobs

JEJU ISLAND, Jeju Province -- Amid growing tension in the corporate community over the government’s chaebol reform drive and planned minimum wage hike, the head of the nation’s top business lobbying organization Wednesday called for voluntary changes and efforts to create more jobs.Stressing the public role of businesses in the South Korean economy, Park Yong-maan, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the time is ripe for businesses to respond to growing

July 19, 2017

Financial regulator to be more active in reining in household debt

South Korea's top financial regulator said Wednesday he will be more active in reining in household debt, calling it the biggest risk facing the nation's economy. Choi Jong-ku, the newly appointed chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remarks in his inauguration speech earlier in the day. The former deputy finance minister, who served at the finance ministry for about three decades, is tasked with slowing down the nation's growing mountain of household debt and restructuring so

July 19, 2017

Producer prices down 0.4% in June on oil price drop

South Korea’s producer prices fell slightly for a fourth straight month in June, reflecting the recent drop in oil and raw material prices, the nation’s central bank data showed Wednesday.The producer price index as of the end of June stood at 101.79, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous month and 0.9 percentage points up from the end of last year, according to provisional data released by the Bank of Korea.The corresponding index, indicating the price fluctuation of products

July 19, 2017

Moon’s policies carry high costs for economy

Concerns have been raised that a set of policies being shaped by the Moon Jae-in administration will result in cutting deep into the competitiveness and efficiency of the Korean economy by aggravating its high-cost structure.Economists are beginning to ring alarms over this possibility, noting the country has already seen its major industries losing their competitive edge in the global market in the face of mounting challenges from foreign rivals while facing difficulties finding new growth engi

July 19, 2017

Estimate puts public servants in top 7 percentile in annual income

A public servant paid an average of 88.53 million won ($78,868) a year, an amount equal to the top 7 percentile of the nation's average income, according to the Korea Taxpayers' Association.Based on basic salary information disclosed by the government and expenditure analysis of a ward office in Seoul picked as a representative sample, it costs about 179.9 million won a year to keep a public servant employed, the association said. Salary levels of government workers have become news after p

July 19, 2017

Tough job market makes it harder for young people find work: govt. data

A tough market is making it harder for young people to find work with new jobseekers taking up to a year to land a position, government data showed Wednesday. According to Statistics Korea, the number of college graduates, dropouts and high-school graduates stood at some 4.82 million in May. Of them, about 4.18 million, or 86.8 percent, were employed or held a job at least once. The ratio of young people who had work experience fell 0.2 percentage point from a year ago.  As for 4.09 million

July 19, 2017

BOK says over 290m dormant coins back in circulation

South Korea's central bank said Wednesday that it has put more than 290 million dormant coins back into general circulation.People brought out some 296 million coins worth 40.8 billion won ($36.3 million) to have them changed into banknotes during the nationwide collection campaign in June, according to the Bank of Korea.This marked a 10.6-percent increase in the number of reclaimed coins vis-a-vis last year. Combined value of coins collected rose 10.9 percent. The annual campaign is designed to

July 19, 2017

Dollar-won volatility eases in Q2

The volatility in the dollar-won exchange rates slightly eased in the April-June period from a quarter earlier as global financial markets stabilized, the central bank said Wednesday.The average daily variation, showing the change from the previous session's closing price, came to 4.2 won in the second quarter, down from 5.7 won in the previous quarter, according to data from the Bank of Korea.Meanwhile, the average gap between the daily high and low of the dollar-won exchange rates came to 5.8

July 19, 2017

[Monitor] More mothers opt to work

The number of South Koreans who are economically inactive due to reasons related to child care has dropped to a record low this year amid the country‘s chronic low birthrate, data by Statistics Korea showed Tuesday.The total number of economically inactive people aged over 15 stood at 15.83 million last month. Of them, about 1.24 million people, or 7.8 percent, were categorized as people not looking for work because they have to take care of children. It is the lowest since the government

July 18, 2017

Korea moves to strengthen rights of franchisees

South Korea's antitrust regulator announced a set of measures meant to strengthen rights of franchisees Tuesday, a sign that underscores the government's commitment to ending unfair business practices across the board.The measures call for, among other things, food franchisers to release information on profit margins of essential goods that franchisees need to buy from their corporate parents, the Fair Trade Commission said.Commission officials will team up with their counterparts from the Seoul

July 18, 2017

Ex-Daewoo shipyard CEO gets reduced sentence in appeal over accounting fraud

A Seoul appellate court on Tuesday commuted the sentence on a former head of a now debt-ridden shipyard convicted of massive accounting fraud that culminated in state-led fund injections.The Seoul High Court reduced the sentence for Ko Jae-ho, former chief executive of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., to nine years in jail. He was handed down a 10-year term by a lower court in January.Ko was indicted in July last year on charges of cooking the books worth over 5.7 trillion won i

July 18, 2017

Sluggish economy means no summer holiday for 1 in 5 Koreans

One in five workers said that they will not be able to take time off work this summer, citing a sluggish economy and excessive workload as the main reasons, according to a survey by workers education company Hunet on Tuesday.  　Hunet’s survey of 934 employees found that 21.6 percent of the respondents said they are not planning on taking summer vacations this year. The results are slightly lower compared to last year, where 25.5 percent had said they could not take a vacation. 　In thi

July 18, 2017

US Congress asks USTR for consultation in amending FTA with Korea

The US Congress has called on the United States Trade Representative to arrange for a consultation meeting in regards to any amendments to the free trade pact with South Korea, Seoul's trade promotion agency said Tuesday. Four leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives sent a letter to the US Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, urging the office to "consult closely with Congress before meeting with South Korea and throughout its discussions," the Korea International Trad

July 18, 2017

Minimum wage increase to raise pay for foreign workers by W1.75tr

The approved minimum wage increase next year will incur 1.75 trillion won ($1.55 billion) in additional pay for small and medium-sized enterprises that hire foreign workers, a local business association said Tuesday.Some 269,000 foreigners were working an average of 209 hours per month at local companies as of May this year. The hike in minimum wage will raise their monthly pay by 332,891 won, which covers basic pay, overtime and employee insurance, according to the Korea Federation of SMEs.&nbs

July 18, 2017

Number of child rearing-related economically inactive people hit record low levels

The number of child rearing-related economically inactive South Koreans fell to a record low level this year amid the country's chronic low birthrate, government data showed Tuesday. Economically inactive people refer to those who are unemployed and not looking for jobs. They include those who have intentionally given up seeking jobs or are engaged in educational pursuits.  According to the data provided by Statistics Korea, the number of economically inactive people aged over 15 stood at 1

July 18, 2017