The national financial regulator will strengthen risk management over the land- and commercial building-backed mortgage loans, seeking to control the country’s snowballing household debt, its top official said.New Financial Services Commission chairman Yim Jong-yong said in the weekly working-level meeting on Friday that the regulator would “make precise analyses of the household debt conditions, as if performing an MRI.” “We are planning on more active management on the land- and commercial bui

March 20, 2015

Global financial leaders and experts will gather in Busan next week to discuss developing finance and boosting trade with Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Korean Finance Ministry said Wednesday. The Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of Inter-American Development Bank and Inter-American Investment Corporation, cohosted by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, will run for four days from March 26 at BEXCO. Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who concurrently serves as deputy prime

March 18, 2015

Financial corporations were found to have the highest entertainment expenses among all industries in 2013, the tax collector reported on Monday.Analysts said the results indicate that the financial industry could be hurt most by the new anticorruption bill set to take effect in October next year.In 2013, the country’s 18,518 financial firms, including insurers, banks and brokerages, spent a total of 750 billion won ($661.7 million) as “entertainment spending,” including expenditure on gifts, mea

March 16, 2015

South Korea’s economic growth lagged behind the average of the G20 member countries for four consecutive years, data showed Sunday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy saw its gross domestic product grow by 3.3 percent in 2014, lower than the G20’s 3.4 percent average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported in its quarterly national accounts of GDP. South Korea’s GDP growth has come short of the G20 average since 2011, when the growth rate reached 3.7 percent, and stayed at

March 15, 2015

The Korean won and stocks tumbled Monday as strong U.S. job data increased expectations that the U.S. central bank would raise its interest rate sooner than projected.The won-dollar exchange rose 13.4 won to 1,112.1 won as investors offloaded their Korean won holdings for the dollar, making the won weaker. This is the first time that the won-dollar exchange rose above the 1,110 mark since Dec. 8, 2014, at 1,117.7 won. U.S. job data showed Friday that its unemployment rate reached 5.5 percent las

March 9, 2015

The number of self-hired workers declined to all-time low last year, as the economic slowdown struck harder on start-ups than salaried workers, data showed Friday. The percentage of self-hired workers fell to 22.1 percent in 2014, down 0.4 percent from a year ago, according to data revealed by Statistics Korea and KB Financial Group’s management research institute.While the number of all workers grew 550,000 to 18.7 million on-year, the total number of self-hired workers rose only 1,000. The gro

March 6, 2015

The government and the ruling Saenuri Party have agreed to raise the minimum wage and begun preparations to discuss the legislation with opposition parties.“We will put in our utmost effort to find common ground between the ruling and opposing parties over the minimum wage increase,” Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min said in the party’s supreme council meeting Thursday.Yoo’s remarks came after Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who also serves as deputy prime minister, stressed the ne

March 5, 2015

Retail industries are expressing concerns about the new tough anticorruption law that was passed in the National Assembly on Tuesday, on fears of revenue falling.In particular, golf clubs, department stores and high-end restaurant industries voiced discontent with the so-called Kim Young-ran bill, claiming that the law would likely drag down domestic consumption by incriminating even businesspeople and civil servants who attend casual business gatherings.The bill, to go into effect September 201

March 4, 2015

Korean food exporters plan to lure Japan, the world’s largest importer of Korean food, at the annual international food expo in Tokyo, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday. A total of 56 Korean food exporters will set up booths at the Korean segment of the 40th Foodex Japan, in Makuhari Messe, from March 3-6. The event will host 2,977 exhibitors from 79 countries and is expected to draw some 80,000 trade professionals.“In recent years, Japanese food suppliers have been relying more on imports th

March 2, 2015