Corporate direct financing tumbles 44% in Feb.

Corporate direct financing in South Korea plunged nearly 44 percent in February from the previous month due mainly to a base effect, data showed Thursday. Local companies raised a combined 15.5 trillion won ($12.7 billion) by selling stocks and bonds last month, down 43.7 percent from January, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. Direct financing refers to raising funds directly from the stock and bond markets without borrowing from banks and other financial institutions

March 24, 2022

Outgoing BOK chief concerned over high inflationary pressure

South Korea’s central bank chief Lee Ju-yeol on Wednesday expressed concerns of the lingering woes stemming from COVID-19, including the high inflationary pressure, as he prepares to wrap-up eight successful years as the Bank of Korea governor. “Looking back, my past eight years as BOK governor were full of unexpected events starting with the Sewol Ferry disaster -- which happened only 15 days after I took office -- MERS, Brexit, US-China trade war, Japan’s export restri

March 23, 2022

Moon taps IMF director as new central bank chief

President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday tapped Rhee Chang-yong, director of the Asia and Pacific department at the International Monetary Fund, as the nation’s next central bank chief, but the nomination set off a new war of words as President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s office said it wasn’t consulted on the selection. Rhee’s nomination comes on the heels of an apparent weekslong power struggle between the outgoing Moon and the incoming Yoon administrations on naming key staff me

March 23, 2022

S. Korea's overseas direct investment hits all-time high in 2021

South Korea's overseas direct investment hit a record high last year as the global economy recovered from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The value of investments made by South Korean companies reached $75.87 billion last year, up 32.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It marked the highest since the government compiled related data in 1968. In the fourth quarter, the country's overseas direct investment jumped

March 23, 2022

S. Korea to ease property-related tax burdens of owners of one home

South Korea said Wednesday it plans to ease tax burdens on owners of a single home amid growing public discontent about the government's housing policy amid skyrocketing home prices in recent years. The measures -- which are set to be announced at 11 a.m. -- are meant to prevent the owners of one home from additionally shouldering the burden of paying real estate-related taxes. The government plans to let the owners of one home pay similar amounts of property-holding taxes to those of last yea

March 23, 2022

Producer prices up for 2nd month in Feb on high energy costs

South Korea's producer prices grew for the second straight month in February, as high energy costs drove up the prices of factory-produced goods, central bank data showed Wednesday. The producer price index, a major barometer of consumer inflation, stood at 114.82 in February, up 0.4 from a month earlier, according to the preliminary data from the Bank of Korea (BOK). It marked the second straight month that the index has risen following January's 1.1 percent on-month gain. From a year earlier,

March 23, 2022

Moon-Yoon feud casts doubt on Yongsan makeover plan

The fate of Yongsan-gu, Seoul’s geographically central district set to see a changing landscape in years to come, is clouded again as the feud over whether to house a new presidential office there escalates between the outgoing and incoming presidents. President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is rushing to relocate the presidential office to the Defense Ministry complex in Yongsan before taking office on May 10. This is to end what he calls the “imperial presidency” Cheong Wa Dae represe

March 22, 2022

Land Ministry likely to brief deregulatory housing measures

SEJONG -- President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition team is scheduled to receive a policy briefing from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport over real estate issues later this week, government officials said Tuesday. In line with Yoon’s earlier pledges to supply 2.5 million housing units nationwide for five years if elected, the Land Ministry’s report could possibly include the market situation in terms of conducting land development as well as deregulations on

March 22, 2022

Card use grows in 2021 on spending recovery, less reliance on hard currency

Card use for settlement in South Korea jumped 9.4 percent last year as consumption rebounded from a pandemic-caused slowdown and people reduced reliance on hard currency, central bank data showed Tuesday. The daily average settlement made through credit card and other card services came to 2.76 trillion won ($2.26 billion) last year, up from 2.52 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea. The growth was driven mostly by a spike in settlement through credit

March 22, 2022

Sales at franchise outlets fall 5.5% in 2020 due to pandemic

Sales at franchise outlets in South Korea declined 5.5 percent on-year in 2020 due to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, led by a slump in sales at dining-out brands, the corporate watchdog showed Tuesday. Sales at franchise outlets averaged 311 million won ($254,400) in 2020, compared with 329 million won the previous year, according to the Fair Trade Commission. Average sales at dining-out franchise brands fell 9 percent on-year to 283 million won. Service providers, including education

March 22, 2022

Banks' bad loans decline in 2021 amid debt rollovers

South Korean banks' nonperforming loans shrank in 2021 due in part to debt rollovers aimed at helping pandemic-hit businesses, data showed Tuesday. Bad loans at local banks came to 11.8 trillion won ($9.7 billion) at the end of December, down from the previous year's 13.9 trillion won, according to the preliminary data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The regulator attributed the decline to a fall in overdue corporate loans, which totaled 10.2 trillion won as of end-December, down f

March 22, 2022

Yoon’s pledge for seniors, soldiers, married couples to cost W68tr

SEJONG -- The three major cash payment pledges made by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol are drawing wide attention, as the support targets make up a large portion of the population: seniors, soldiers and young parents. Yoon pledged that he, if elected, would raise the basic pension (also known as age pension) payouts for the elderly and wage for draftees. He also promised to pay parents with newborns wages for a certain period. Market insiders have raised concerns over how to fund Yoon‘s ca

March 21, 2022

Low-income households suffer more from inflation: report

South Korea’s low-income households in the bottom 20 percent have been hit harder by COVID-19-induced inflation than high-income households in the top 20 percent, due to a sharper surge in essential spending on food, housing and utilities than in discretionary spending, a local think tank said Monday. Between 2018-2019 and 2020-2021, consumer prices rose 2.7 percent for the bottom 20 percent, about 1.4 times more than that of the top 20 percent at 1.9 percent, according to the Korea Econo

March 21, 2022

Brokerage firms see 2021 net profit jump on increased transaction fees

Brokerage firms in South Korea saw their net profit grow sharply last year thanks to increased transactions fees, data showed Monday. According to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service, 58 brokerage firms reported 9.09 trillion won ($7.5 billion) in their combined net profit last year, up 54.2 percent from a year earlier. The spike stemmed in part from increased transactions fees that expanded 23.2 percent on-year to 16.8 trillion won last year, the data showed. Their earnings from fee

March 21, 2022

Exports grow 10% in first 20 days of March

South Korea's exports rose 10.1 percent in the first 20 days of March from a year earlier on the back of demand for chips and petroleum products, customs data showed Monday. The country's outbound shipments stood at $37.3 billion in the March 1-20 period, compared with $33.8 billion a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. Imports gained 18.9 percent on-year to $39.3 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $2.08 billion during the cited period, the data showed. B

March 21, 2022

S. Korea's coffee imports hit new high in 2021

South Korea's imports of coffee surged more than 24 percent to hit a new all-time high in 2021 on its growing popularity here, data showed Monday. The value of the country's coffee imports stood at $916.5 million last year, up 24.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and industry sources. It marks the first time that South Korea's coffee imports have exceeded the 1 trillion-won ($823 million) level in terms of the local currency. Last year's amoun

March 21, 2022

Banks use AI to enhance customer experience

South Korean banks are embracing artificial intelligence to better understand customers and enable them to take advantage of services more easily, as local financial institutions step up efforts to digitalize their operations. Hana Bank, one of the five major banks here, said Friday that it would use artificial intelligence to look through customer reviews in real-time so as to expand communication between customers and staff. “We see change every day in the banking industry. Getting imm

March 18, 2022

Index signals Seoul property market gaining vitality

SEJONG -- Recent indices are signaling a possible vitalization of the real estate market later this year, with expectations growing over deregulations, which had been pledged by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol. A major property index showed Friday that the gap between the number of people, who want to purchase homes and those, who want to sell homes has somewhat narrowed. But the potential sellers still outnumbered potential buyers. According to the Korea Real Estate Board, the index for trading

March 18, 2022

Omicron spread feared to constrain private spending recovery: finance ministry

The South Korean economy has extended its recovery momentum on the back of robust exports, but the fast spread of the omicron variant is feared to constrain the recovery of private spending, the finance ministry said Friday. External economic uncertainties also heightened as volatility in raw material prices and market fluctuations amplified due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the ministry said in its monthly economic assessment report, called the Green Book. "South Korea's exports have ma

March 18, 2022

BOK chief nomination delayed amid Moon-Yoon friction

President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol are seen as bickering over replacing the Bank of Korea governor, whose term ends on March 31 ahead of the May inauguration day, sparking concerns of a leadership void that could add another layer of uncertainty to economic worries. The BOK, which is expected to lift the nation’s key rate in response to a rate hike by the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday, is walking a thin line between stemming currency depreciation and inflation at ho

March 17, 2022