Most Popular
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Exports to US reach all-time high, widen gap with China
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Trump rekindles criticism: US forces defending 'wealthy' S. Korea 'free of charge'
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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Inflation eases in April, continues bumpy ride
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Golden chance to liquidate babies’ gold rings?
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Seoul Metro to seek legal action against malicious complaints
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Illit, mired in controversy, remains on Billboard charts for 5th week
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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Downside risks looming larger: finance minister
South Korea's economy is increasingly facing downside risks amid the trade tussle between the United States and China, the country's chief economic policymaker said Friday, stressing the need to take quick and bold actions to buttress the economy."There are growing calls to take bolder actions as the economy is faced with increased downside risks," Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said in a meeting with heads of private economic think tanks.Exports have been on a constant decline, and dome
June 14, 2019
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Govt. ministries request 6.2% budget increase for 2020
South Korea's government ministries and state agencies have requested a 6.2 percent hike in their budgets for next year as they want to spend more on welfare, research and development, and defense, the finance ministry said Friday.Ministries and state agencies have asked the government to set aside a combined 498.7 trillion won ($422 billion) for the budget for next year, up 29.1 trillion won from this year's 469.6 trillion won, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.The government req
June 14, 2019
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Jobless rate at 4% in May, job additions gather pace
South Korea's jobless rate remained flat at 4 percent in May from a year earlier, and job additions again exceeded the 200,000 mark, government data showed Wednesday.The number of employed people reached 27.32 million in May, an increase of 259,000 from the same month in 2018, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The statistics agency said the number of unemployed people stood at 1.145 million in May, the highest level for any May since 2000.The unemployment rate for young adults
June 12, 2019
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Exports down 16.6% in first 10 days of June
South Korea's exports sharply fell 16.6 percent in the first 10 days of June mainly due to decreased shipments of semiconductors, one of the country's key items, customs data showed Tuesday.The country's exports stood at $10.3 billion in the June 1-10 period, compared with $12.3 billion in the same period last year, according to the Korea Customs Service. By product, exports of electronic appliances and vessels jumped 68.1 percent and 169.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, outbound
June 11, 2019
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S. Korea should continue expansionary actions: finance minister, IMF chief
South Korea’s top fiscal policymaker and the chief of the International Monetary Fund have agreed that Asia’s fourth-largest economy needs to continue its current pump-priming policies in order to respond to external risks and to boost growth, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said Monday.The finance minister also pledged his dedicated efforts to effectuate the government’s supplementary budget bill worth 6.7 trillion ($5.7 billion), which has been pending here since late Apr
June 10, 2019
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[News Focus] Korea seeks to raise GDP, employment figures by spending more of taxpayers’ money
SEJONG -- The Moon Jae-in government recently unveiled a policy to pay 3 million won ($2,550) over a six-month period, or 500,000 won a month, to a certain portion of jobless people aged 18-64 after assessing their household income levels.It has also decided to provide financial support for self-employed people who have had to close their businesses, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.Officials say the purpose of this support is to assist the recipients’ job-seeking activiti
June 9, 2019
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Downside risks continuing amid heightened uncertainty: Cheong Wa Dae
South Korea's economy is positioned to face heightened downside risks as the trade dispute between the United States and China escalates, hurting global trade and manufacturing activity, a senior presidential secretary said Sunday."I think we cannot rule out the possibility of the downside risks being drawn out as external uncertainties have increased further than what we expected," Yoon Jong-won, senior secretary for economic affairs, told reporters. "The global economy is on a d
June 9, 2019
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Gold price hits 3-year high amid US-China trade uncertainties
The price of gold on South Korea’s bourse reached the highest level in three years this week, reflecting the market’s preference for risk-free assets amid persistent volatility, data showed Thursday.According to the Korea Exchange Gold Market, the price of gold closed at 50,430 won ($42.80) per gram Wednesday, down 30 won from the previous day’s close but up 9.06 percent from the beginning of the year.Tuesday’s closing price of 50,460 won per gram marked the highest since
June 6, 2019
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Consumer prices stay stagnant for 5th month
South Korea’s consumer price growth remained below the 1 percent level for the fifth consecutive month in May, due to a decline in price of petroleum products and increased welfare costs, government data showed Tuesday.The latest figures, which fell far below the Bank of Korea’s consumer price target of 2 percent, are once again seen as a signal that the central bank may consider a policy rate cut within the year. The consumer price index stood at 105.05 in May, up 0.7 percent from a
June 4, 2019
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Korean economy shrinks revised 0.4% in Q1: BOK
South Korea's economy shrank at a faster rate in the first quarter than earlier expected, the central bank said Tuesday, due to sluggish investment and exports that are expected to further deteriorate on escalating trade tension between the world's two largest economies.The country's real gross domestic product backtracked 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year from three months earlier, the Bank of Korea said.The latest revision is lower than the central bank's earlier estimate of a 0.3 p
June 4, 2019
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BOK chief urges for economic resilience amid prolonged trade war impact
The chief of South Korea’s central bank on Monday urged the nation to build economic resilience to external shock factors, amid the prolonged US-China trade conflict and its negative impact. He also reiterated the need for structural reform to rev up the country’s growth potential and job creation capacity. “Global economic linkages have been slowing lately due to the impact of the trade dispute (between Washington and Beijing),” said Lee Ju-yeol, governor of the Bank of
June 3, 2019
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[News Focus] National debt up W56 trillion since late 2017: Assembly data
SEJONG -- Compared with past governments, the Moon Jae-in administration has been actively increasing public expenditure to benefit jobless people in their 20s and early 30s.However, many have cast doubt on the efficacy of its strategy of pouring dozens of trillions of won in taxpayer money into job creation over the past two years since May 2017.This year, the incumbent government is struggling to prevent the economic growth rate from falling sharply by proposing a supplementary budget bill, dr
June 2, 2019
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S. Korea's exports down 9.4 percent in May on chips, China
South Korea's exports dropped 9.4 percent in May from a year earlier, extending their on-year fall for the sixth consecutive month, data showed Saturday, due mainly to the sluggish shipments of chips and the weak Chinese economy. Outbound shipments came to US$45.9 billion for May, down from the $50.68 billion tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Imports moved down 1.9 percent last month to $43.64 billion, the minis
June 1, 2019
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BOK freezes key rate at 1.75%
South Korea's central bank left its policy rate unchanged at 1.75 percent Friday amid lingering concerns over weaker economic growth. The monetary policy board of the Bank of Korea voted to leave the bellwether rate steady for the sixth straight month after raising it by a quarter percentage point in November last year. The BOK's wait-and-see stance had been widely expected as South Korea's economy shows some signs of a downturn in exports and tepid domestic demand amid protracted US-China trade
May 31, 2019
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[Monitor] S. Korea’s birthrate plunges to monthly low in March
The number of births in South Korea plunged to an all-time monthly low of 27,100 in March, according to Statistics Korea, reflecting the nation’s declining marriage and fertility rates. Data showed that 27,100 babies were born in March, down 9.7 percent on-year, marking the lowest figure for March since the agency began compiling related data in 1981. This is also the first time the birthrate in March has dropped below the 30,000 level. The number of marriages also dropped to 19,600 in the
May 30, 2019
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S. Korea remains on US ‘monitoring list’ for currency manipulation
The United States Treasury Department has kept South Korea on its monitoring list for currency manipulating countries, suggesting a possible removal in the next report, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said Wednesday.In a semiannual report submitted to Congress on Tuesday, the US Treasury also named eight other trading partners as those requiring attention regarding their currency practices. The list comprised China, Japan, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.Also, Korea
May 29, 2019
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S. Korea drops to 28th place in global competitiveness rankings
South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking dropped one place this year, amid an economic slowdown hit by reduced exports and capital investments, an annual report by a Switzerland-based international institute showed Wednesday.The International Institute for Management Development said in its report that Korea ranked 28th in terms of world competitiveness among the 63 countries surveyed. It was ranked 27th last year.The institute, since 1997, has been ranking economies based on four cate
May 29, 2019
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Seoul’s housing price hike stable among major cities: government
In an apparent move to advocate the incumbent government’s real estate measures, the Land Ministry said Tuesday that Seoul’s housing prices had grown at a stable rate for the past five years, compared to fluctuations observed in real estate transaction prices in other major cities. Seoul saw an average 18.9 percent rate fluctuation in its housing price from 2014 to 2018, according to the data, which was released as part of a seminar co-hosted by the ministry and the state-run Ko
May 28, 2019
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Korea’s consumer sentiment index dips to 6-month low
South Korea’s composite consumer sentiment index fell in May for the first time in six months, due to a slowing economy, volatile stock market and concerns over the escalating trade war between the US and China. The Bank of Korea said Tuesday that the CSI -- which measures consumers’ optimism about the economy -- came to 97.9 for May, down 3.7 points from the previous month.It marks the first decline in the index since November 2018, when it fell to 95.7. It had been on a five-month
May 28, 2019
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[News Focus] Online shopping expands more than 100% in 3 years
SEJONG -- South Koreans have sharply increased their shopping through computers and smartphones in recent years, which is taking up more than 20 percent of their total consumption.The rapid growth of online shopping transactions has been backed by systematic parcel delivery services, which send products to consumers across the country in one to three days.Almost every kind of product -- from drinking water, food and cosmetics to clothing, home appliances and furniture -- are available on online
May 26, 2019