South Korea’s KB Kookmin Bank on Thursday said it has adopted a global environmental, social and governance-related risk-management framework, known as the Equator Principles, to better uphold its environmental responsibilities. By complying with the international convention adopted by financial institutions around the world, KB Kookmin hopes to bolster its ESG standards in its decision-making process. Project financing over $10 million and corporate loans of over $50 million are subje

Market Feb. 4, 2021

South Korea recieved some of the lowest amount of foreign direct investment among 37 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members last year, a local think tank data showed Wednesday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy’s FDI-to-gross ratio last year came to 0.32 percent, translating into No. 25 among 37 global economies in terms of FDI recipient, a report by Korea Economic Research Institute said. The net FDI-to-GDP ratio -– which is FDI minus outward direct inves

Economy Feb. 3, 2021

South Korean banks have ordered their employees in Myammar to stay at home and launched emergency safety measures, as of Tuesday, upon the news of the military having taken control of the ASEAN nation in a coup. The coup is expected to put a damper on the lenders’ plans this year to expand their presence in the ASEAN economies, to recover from blows dealt by the coronavirus pandemic. For local banks this year, Myanmar was supposed to work as a springboard for recovery from coronavirus

Market Feb. 2, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened income inequality in the nation, as the social distancing rules cost jobs and increased poverty, the central bank said Monday.  The potential total wage loss rate -- which took into account the nation’s labor capability in lockdowns, the duration of lockdowns and the number of regular workers -- amounted to 7.4 percent last year, the Bank of Korea said in its regular report on the nation’s economy.  The rate was also calculated on the

Economy Feb. 1, 2021

The Export-Import Bank of Korea said Friday it had agreed to extend a $160 million loan as part of the Economic Development Cooperation Fund to Uzbekistan to build a hospital and a research and development center there. The deal was a result of a bilateral online summit held between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held Thursday, Eximbank said. Of the total loan, $120 million would be funneled to the construction of a general hospital in Tashkent, whi

Market Jan. 29, 2021

South Korea’s current snowballing budget deficit, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic “can be offset by gradual consolidation” in coming years, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday. The remark by Andreas Bauer, Korea mission chief at the IMF, apparently aims to alleviate concerns surrounding the nation’s government debt surged by four rounds of supplementary budgets implemented to finance COVID-19 relief programs. The sovereign debt is projected reach 956 trillio

Economy Jan. 28, 2021

South Korea’s economy shrank 1 percent in 2020 from the previous year, due to blows dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic, marking its first contraction since it was hit by the devastating 1997 Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago, the central bank said Tuesday. The 1 percent contraction in the country’s gross domestic product was slightly better than the Bank of Korea’s earlier projection of minus 1.1 percent in November, its advanced data showed. Yet, it was one of its

Economy Jan. 26, 2021

President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for his administration to seek institutionalized measures that could financially aid small businesses and the self-employed hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. “I hope the government and the ruling Democratic Party will jointly discuss measures to institutionalize compensation for the losses of small business owners and the self-employed within a range that the state budget can afford,” he said to pool reporters in a meeting tied to briefings from l

Economy Jan. 25, 2021

South Korea’s leading commercial banks are seeking ways to accelerate digitalization of their retail services with some even breaking down traditional barriers between new industry rivals in order to share ideas on boosting innovation. Kakao Bank CEO Yoon Ho-young was invited by Woori Bank on Friday to speak about the internet-only banking giant’s success and the future of finance, Kakao Bank said. Woori’s invitation of the head of the fast-growing online banking company is

Market Jan. 24, 2021

South Korea plans to invest 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion) for commercialization of Level 4 autonomous driving technology, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Thursday, while highlighting the increasing competition in the self-driving car sector driven by global firms like Apple. “With reports of Apple’s plans to enter the future car market, talks of cooperation between big tech firms and traditional carmakers have been growing,” Hong said in a meeting of economy-related officia

Market Jan. 21, 2021

South Korea’s financial authorities said Wednesday they plan to adopt stricter guidelines, regulations and monitoring for foreign exchange trading by local non-banking institutions such as brokerages and insurers. “Three types of new monitoring standards will be adopted to keep an eye on forex liquidity in non-banking financial institutions,” Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a press briefing. “We will improve the effectiveness of the monit

Market Jan. 20, 2021

The rising US Treasury yields has become a “key variable in the global foreign exchange market,” South Korea’s vice finance minister said Tuesday, nodding towards a stronger dollar trend that has rattled emerging market currencies. “When the 10-year US Treasury yield surpassed the 1 percent mark (earlier this month), the Euro, the Japanese Yen and the Chinese Yuan all dropped against the US greenback,” Vice Finance Minister Kim Yong-beom said in a macroeconomic fin

Economy Jan. 19, 2021

South Korea plans to kick off a 4.1 trillion won ($3.7 billion) emergency cash handout program Monday to offer up to 3 million won to small business owners, freelancers and special contract laborers hit by the third wave of coronavirus here, the Finance Ministry said Sunday.　 Roughly 2.5 million small business owners and self-employed individuals, or almost 90 percent of the country’s total, are eligible for the cash subsidies. They will be notified via text messages that they have been c

Economy Jan. 10, 2021

Top foreign investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and HSBC, have upgraded South Korea’s growth outlook for this year to an average 3.4 percent, up by 0.1 percentage point from their previous estimate, a report released by the Korea Center for International Finance showed Thursday.  By end-December, two of nine investment banks surveyed in the report -- Credit Suisse and HSBC -- had revised their outlook upward by 0.7 percentage point and 0.5 percentage point to 3.6 per

Economy Jan. 7, 2021

South Korea’s Finance Ministry said Wednesday that it has no plans to raise taxes on gasoline and diesel this year, despite its vows to go carbon neutral by 2050, and hinted that it will likely maintain the inheritance tax at its current level. In a briefing on the revised taxation rules previously announced in July, Im Jae-hyun, a senior official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said the government “currently has no plans to adjust the transportation-energy-environment tax

Economy Jan. 6, 2021