Fee cut to cost credit card firms about W700b per year in lost revenue

The government's plans to cut credit card commission fees will cost credit card firms about 700 billion won ($619.8 million) per year in lost revenue, a government report showed Wednesday. Financial authorities unveiled two plans this year to reduce credit card commission fees for small merchants in a move to support self-employed business owners at a time when the nation's economy is showing signs of sluggish growth amid weaker consumption.Under the plans, credit card processing fees for small

Dec. 12, 2018

Nonbank loans rise for SMEs, shrink for conglomerates: dataconglomerates

Nonbank loans for conglomerates have declined this year, while those for small and medium-sized enterprises have increased, reflecting shrinking investing sentiment among large companies and financial difficulties for small businesses, central bank data showed Wednesday.The outstanding loans to large companies as of end-September stood at 16.72 trillion won ($14.82 billion), down 787.5 billion won from the end of last year, according to data released by the Bank of Korea. This was the first time

Dec. 12, 2018

[Monitor] Real estate boom lifts No. of active businesses

The number of active enterprises expanded by the largest figure in 10 years last year, mainly bolstered by the real estate boom, data from Statistics Korea showed.Meanwhile, the enterprise death rate -- the number of enterprises that close their doors permanently in proportion to the population of active enterprises -- was highest among restaurants and lodging businesses.A total of 913,000 new businesses were created last year, an increase of 4.2 percent from 2016. The enterprise birth rate drop

Dec. 11, 2018

Kuwait’s new airport terminal operated by IIAC opens

Incheon International Airport Corp. said Tuesday that the new terminal at Kuwait International Airport managed by the South Korean operator has officially opened. Kuwait International Airport is wholly owned by the Kuwaiti government, handling some 12 million travelers last year. IIAC was chosen as the operator for the new Terminal 4 through a bidding process in April. It is the first time for a foreign company to operate the Kuwaiti airport. IIAC said it has dispatched 30 officials with relevan

Dec. 11, 2018

Finance minister calls for investment and job creation

South Korea's new finance minister on Tuesday urged companies to make investments and take the lead in creating jobs as the country makes every effort to bolster economic growth.In October, the Bank of Korea trimmed its economic growth outlook to 2.7 percent for 2018 from its earlier projection of 2.9 percent. It is lower than the finance ministry's 2.9 percent outlook and the International Monetary Fund's 2.8 percent prediction. The South Korean economy grew 3.1 percent in 2017 and 2.9 percent

Dec. 11, 2018

Data shows more online shoppers using Chinese malls

A growing number of South Koreans shopping at overseas online malls are picking Chinese sites, a tally from a credit card firm indicated Tuesday.Purchase records from Nov. 1-26, compiled by the big data center at Shinhan Card, showed a 9.8 percent increase from last year in the monetary total of goods bought from overseas Internet sites. In terms of the number of purchases, this year's total was up 16.6 percent. The figures were derived from comparisons of the same period in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Dec. 11, 2018

Korea, India to hold talks on upgrading trade pact

South Korea and India will hold negotiations to upgrade their existing bilateral trade pact to lower barriers between the two nations, the government here said Monday.The two nations implemented the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in January 2010 and have held six rounds of talks to push for further market liberalization.  The seventh round of CEPA talks will be held in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss ways to further open up the goods and services market and ease coun

Dec. 10, 2018

Wage gap between large, small firms widens to 1.7 fold in 2014: report

The wage gap between workers in large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises widened in 2014 amid a deepening polarization of the labor market, a report said Monday.According to the report published by the Bank of Korea, large businesses -- those with 300 or more workers -- paid wages 1.7 times greater than those paid to employees at smaller firms in 2014, widening from a 1.1-fold gap tallied in 1980. The large firms put a 46.1 percent wage premium on their highly-educated, skilled emp

Dec. 10, 2018

Korea's economy showing signs of gradual slowdown: KDI

South Korea's economy is showing signs of a gradual slowdown with export growth cooling amid sluggish private consumption, a state-run think tank said Monday. "The growth pace of exports slowed and domestic demand remained weak, implying that overall economic activity appeared to be gradually slowing," the Korea Development Institute said in its monthly evaluation of the country's economic conditions.Exports in November appeared to lose some steam, mainly due to weaker global demand fo

Dec. 10, 2018

[Monitor] Half of Korean working moms earn less than W2m a month

Almost half of South Korean women aged between 15 and 54 and married with under age children earn less than 2 million won every month, according to data released by Statistics Korea.The data revealed that there are 5.063 million married and working women with children under 18 as of April this year. Among them, 49.1 percent earned a monthly wage of less than 2 million won ($1,780). This was 10.8 percentage points higher than the percentage of overall workers -- both men and women -- earning less

Dec. 10, 2018

[News Focus] Korea expanding cooperation with Latin America on cruise-logistics ports

SEJONG - South Korea is expanding its economic partnership with South and Central American countries, which involves co-development projects on maritime affairs in the logistics and tourism segment.Earlier this year Korea signed a free trade agreement with five Central American countries -- Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama -- which made it the first Asian country to reach the deal with a Central American trade bloc. And Guatemala is set to join the bloc after the bilateral

Dec. 10, 2018

Korea to be world's top 5G smartphone-using nation till 2020

South Korea is forecast to have the highest proportion of fifth-generation smartphone usage in the world over the next couple of years, a market tracker said Sunday. According to Strategy Analytics' Service Provider Group, the adoption rate of 5G smartphones in South Korea is expected to reach 5.5 percent in 2019 and 10.9 percent in 2020, which will be the highest level among major global nations. The estimate is based upon the fact that South Korea is to commercialize 5G services in March next

Dec. 9, 2018

Despite 6-year low growth, Korea's GNI to surpass US$30,000

South Korea's per capita income is likely to surpass US$30,000 this year, though the economy is forecast to record its lowest growth rate in six years, observers said Sunday.Gross national income is expected to reach $31,243 in 2018, up from last year's $29,745, according to market observers, who based their calculation on income and foreign exchange data from the Bank of Korea . It will have been 12 years since the country broke the $20,000 mark in 2006. Last year, South Korea placed 31st in th

Dec. 9, 2018

83 percent of Korean workers suffer year-end stress: poll

Eight in 10 South Korean employees said they feel more stressed around the year-end season, a study showed Friday. According to the survey conducted by an online job recruitment company, 83.5 percent of the respondents said they are under more pressure at the end of the year than other times.　The company surveyed a total of 947 adult workers between 20 and 69 years old. A quarter of the respondents who feel stressed at the end of the year said they feel insecure about a lack of achievements, whi

Dec. 7, 2018

Korea's exports expected to surpass $600b this year

South Korea's exports are expected to exceed $600 billion for the first time this year on upbeat sales of memory chips, machinery and petrochemical products, the trade ministry said Friday. Outbound shipments were expected to reach the benchmark on Dec. 27, which would make the nation the world's sixth-largest exporter, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said.  Total trade volume is set to reach over $1.1 trillion by the end of this year, the ministry said. The nation's trade volume

Dec. 7, 2018

Major foreign IBs cut S. Korea’s growth outlook

Major foreign investment banks revised down their forecasts for South Korea’s economic growth for this year and 2019, citing unfavorable conditions both at home and abroad, a report showed Thursday.According to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance, the forecast by nine major global IBs as of end-November averaged 2.7 percent for this year and 2.6 percent for next year, down 0.1 percentage point each from the figures presented a month earlier.Nomura, for example, downgra

Dec. 6, 2018

[Monitor] Unemployment rate for Koreans in late 20s more than double that of Japan

The unemployment rate for South Koreans in their late 20s has escalated rapidly since 2010, and 2017 saw the highest increase since 2000, according to data released by the Bank of Korea.　The proportion of jobless Koreans between the ages of 25 and 29 hit 9.5 percent as of 2017, as compared with only 6.9 percent in 2010. That number has risen consistently since 2000, two years after the financial crisis hit the nation. Japan, where the economy is recovering and the working-age population is on th

Dec. 6, 2018

S. Korea logs current account surplus for 80th straight month

South Korea recorded a current account surplus in October for the 80th straight month on the back of solid goods exports, central bank data showed Thursday.The country’s current account surplus stood at $9.19 billion as of end-October, up sharply from $5.72 billion a year earlier, keeping in the black since March 2012, according to preliminary data released by the Bank of Korea.However, the figure decreased slightly from the previous month when it reached a 12-month high at $10.83 billion.

Dec. 6, 2018

[News Focus] Seoul apartment prices face downhill after touching unprecedented ceiling

SEJONG -- Apartment prices in Seoul, which have continued to shoot up at since the latter half of 2016, are estimated to have hit an all-time high during the first half of 2018, causing a fears of a price bubble.Though the government unveiled a series of measures to curb the “abnormal” housing prices, ordinary households and many property experts agree that these efforts came too late and had no effect. A normalization in Seoul’s housing market will almost certainly take a long

Dec. 6, 2018

Conglomerates claim 61% of Korea's corporate operating profit

Conglomerates with assets worth over 10 trillion won ($8.9 billion) accounted for 61 percent of combined operating profit of all South Korean businesses last year, government data showed Thursday.The data underscored that Asia's fourth-largest economy is still dominated by conglomerates, known here as chaebol.In 2017, the country had 2,191 big companies control such large assets. They accounted for a mere 0.3 percent of the country's 666,163 companies, according to the data compiled by Statistic

Dec. 6, 2018