The Ministry of Economy and Finance said Thursday it has published an English-language version of a booklet explaining its countermeasures against the economic shock due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the international community. Titled “Safeguarding Economic Resilience,” the booklet introduces a number of fiscal measures that the government has implemented as well as some preliminary policies set up to prepare for the post-COVID-19 era, officials said.  Since February, when co

Economy June 11, 2020

   The number of unemployed in South Korea in May hit the highest level in more than a decade as businesses continued to freeze jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday.  According to data released by Statistics Korea, the number of employed totaled at 26.93 million last month, shedding 392,000 jobs compared with a year earlier, which marked the third consecutive monthly loss.  This was the first occurrence since the country reported job losses for four s

Economy June 10, 2020

NH NongHyup Bank announced Wednesday its partnership with a local law firm as well as blockchain developer to set up a consortium for jointly developing financial services using virtual assets. The bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with law firm Bae, Kim & Lee and Hexlant, a blockchain technology laboratory, to launch a joint institution for the research and development of cryptocurrency exchanges.  The move came as the revised bill of the Act on Report and Use of Specif

Market June 10, 2020

  South Korea’s financial data exchange platform, the first of its kind here, has seen billions of won worth of data being traded there in its month.  Since kicking off on May 11, the platform has reportedly arranged 315 transactions of financial information collected from local companies, including credit card issuers and lenders, according to the state-run Financial Security Institute, which operates the platform. A total of 113 data sets were sold and the average sales pri

Market June 9, 2020

As part of its move to nurture the data-based financial industry and financial technology businesses, Korea’s financial authorities will open up 44.5 million pieces of public financial data to the public for free, starting Wednesday, regulator Financial Services Commission said Monday. The range of public financial data consists of large sets of information stored at the FSC and eight other public financial institutions in Korea -- the Financial Supervisory Service, the Korea Developmen

Market June 8, 2020

Housing prices in South Korea are expected to rise in the latter half of this year due to growing demand buoyed by lower interest rates, the Eugene Investment and Securities said in its quarterly report Monday.  “Cash flow into the housing sector will continue to rise amid the prolonged period of low interest rates here, with a rise in demand triggering higher apartment prices,” said Kim Yeol-mae, an analyst at the brokerage. Meanwhile, the average apartment price in Seoul du

Market June 8, 2020

In an effort to stem unfair practices and illegal activities, South Korean authorities propose to set up a system to oversee non-holding financial conglomerates, which have been in the blind spot of regulations so far.  The Financial Services Commission and Financial Supervisory Service made an advance legislation notice Friday about an act to reinforce the supervision of non-holding financial giants, including Samsung Group, Kyobo Group, and Hyundai Motor Group. Under the new rules, loc

Market June 7, 2020

      South Korea’s financial regulator said Thursday it had replaced three senior deputy governors at the Financial Supervisory Service, appointing the incumbent head of the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit as the FSS’s first senior deputy governor. Kim Geun-ik was officially named as the financial watchdog’s first senior deputy governor by the Financial Services Commission during its temporary meeting on Thursday morning, officials said. The KoFIU

Economy June 4, 2020

Tension mounted Tuesday as executives of Hana Financial Group joined the legal battle against financial authorities for imposing penalties for misselling derivatives-linked funds. Jang Kyung-hoon, president of Hana Card as well as Park Se-gul, general manager of Hana Bank’s wealth management unit, have reportedly filed separate suits at a local administrative court to nullify the Financial Supervisory Service’s punitive measures.  In March, Hana Bank was slapped with 16.78 bi

Market June 2, 2020

  The Ministry of Finance and Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Monday they will invest $15 million (18.4 billion won) in the Asian Development Bank’s upcoming new fund program to help early-stage startups here to expand their business into Southeast Asia regions.  The Ventures Facility Investment Fund is aimed at financing small and medium-sized companies in business sectors like agriculture, public sanitation or fintech that foster sustainable economic growth in Southeast A

Economy June 1, 2020

The rate of bailout funds recouped from companies that borrowed from the government since the 1997 Asian financial crisis rose 0.1 percent in the first quarter to 69.3 percent, the country’s financial regulator said Monday. As of end-March, the government had retrieved a total of 116.8 trillion won out of the 168.7 trillion won extended to companies struggled to survive in the 1997 and 2008 financial crises, according to the Financial Services Commission. The retrieval of taxpayers&rsq

Market June 1, 2020

An audit review committee under South Korea’s financial regulator has concluded that tobacco maker KT&G did not intentionally violate accounting rules when it acquired an Indonesian firm in 2011, according to news reports Sunday. The latest decision, when officially announced, will likely help the Korean tobacco giant to eliminate delisting concerns. In a meeting last Thursday, the committee reportedly decided that the breach of local accounting rules was mere “gross negli

Market May 31, 2020

South Korea’s government will establish a guarantee fund program worth 500 billion won ($405 million) to provide extra loans to auto parts firms amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the nation’s fiscal chief on Thursday. “(The government) will protect the automobile industry’s ecosystem by providing cash to small and medium-sized auto parts firms that struggle to secure loans in spite of outstanding technology or sound contract delivery performances,” Deputy

Economy May 28, 2020

South Korea’s global GDP ranking slipped to 10th place last year, the first drop since the 2008 global financial crisis, data showed Wednesday.  According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the country’s nominal GDP stood at $1.64 trillion in 2019 ranking No. 10 out of 38 OECD member countries, two rungs down from 2018. Asia’s fourth-largest economy was outpaced by Canada and Russia last year, which ranked eighth and ninth, respectively. 

Economy May 27, 2020

A middle-income household can buy a house in the Seoul area by saving the entire income without spending a dime for nearly 12 years, data showed Tuesday. The house price to income ratio, or PIR, reach ed 11.7 in the capital city during the first quarter of this year, marking the highest since records began in 2008, according to KB Kookmin Bank Liiv On, a real estate data tracker.   PIR is a widely used measurement of house affordability in a given city or country. The ratio is calcu

Market May 26, 2020