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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[Music in drama] Rekindle a love that slipped through your fingers
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S. Korea discussed possible participation in AUKUS Pillar 2 with Australia: defense minister
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[New faces of Assembly] Architect behind ‘audacious initiative’ believes in denuclearized North Korea
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Opposition-led Assembly unilaterally passes bill to probe Marine's death
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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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On May Day, labor unions blast Yoon's foreign nanny proposal
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[KH Explains] Will alternative trading platform shake up Korean stock market?
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BOK freezes base rate, inches down growth forecast
South Korea’s central bank on Thursday nudged down its forecast for the country’s economic growth this year, while keeping the policy rate steady amid lingering uncertainties in the domestic and global financial markets.The Bank of Korea, in its first Monetary Policy Board meeting of the year, decided unanimously to keep the base rate at 1.75 percent, prolonging the status quo since November, when it raised the rate by a quarter percentage point.The economic growth for this year was
Jan. 24, 2019
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Land prices gain 4.6% in 2018
Land prices in South Korea rose nearly 4.6 percent in 2018 from a year earlier, the fastest clip in 12 years, government data showed Thursday.The country's land prices increased 4.58 percent on-year last year, compared with a 3.88 percent gain in 2017, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.The figure represents the largest on-year increase since the 5.61 percent expansion recorded in 2006.Land prices in Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi Province expanded 5.14 percent, up
Jan. 24, 2019
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[Monitor] Lotto sales hit record high in 2018
Sales of Lotto tickets in South Korea reached an all-time high in 2018 at 3.97 trillion won ($3.5 billion), up 4.4 percent from the previous year, the Korea Lottery Commission said. But the growth rate was less than 6.5 percent in 2017 and 9.5 percent in 2016, due to a lack of new sales outlets.The previous record was in 2003, when 3.82 trillion won worth of Lotto tickets were sold on a buying frenzy sparked by a winner who took home a record prize of 40.7 billion won in April of the same y
Jan. 23, 2019
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Korea to turn unused land into public houses, innovative business space
The South Korean government will turn unused state-owned land equivalent to 2.4 times the size of Yeouido into sites for public houses and business space for innovative companies, the nation’s chief fiscal policymaker said Wednesday.To back the plans, the government decided to spend 65 percent of its yearly social overhead capital within the first half of the year, in a pump-priming effort to resuscitate the slowing domestic economy at all costs. “(The government) has selected 11 uni
Jan. 23, 2019
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Govt. to offer financial support for overseas construction, plant orders
The government will provide financial support for overseas construction and plant orders to shore up exports that are showing signs of weakening, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Wednesday. Global trade disputes and China's economic slowdown are casting a shadow on South Korea's export-reliant economy. Exports dropped 14.6 percent on-year in the first 20 days of January. "The government will actively offer financial support for firms to significantly increase their orders for oversea
Jan. 23, 2019
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Economy grows 2.7% in 2018, marks slowest on-year rise in 6 years: BOK
Last year, the South Korean economy marked the slowest on-year growth pace in six years, amid shrinking corporate investment and slowing exports, central bank data showed Tuesday.Expanded government spending in the final quarter of the year was seen as having raised the annual figure to meet the government target level, while private sector remained sluggish, according to the bank.The country’s economy grew 2.7 percent on-year in 2018, down from 3.1 percent in the previous year, according
Jan. 22, 2019
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Korean economy grows 2.7% in 2018: BOK
The South Korean economy grew at the slowest pace in six years in 2018 as shrinking corporate investment weighed heavily on Asia's fourth-largest economy, central bank data showed Tuesday.The nation's economy expanded 2.7 percent on-year in 2018, slowing down from 3.1 percent the previous year, according to the advance estimate by the Bank of Korea. It is the most sluggish on-year growth since 2012, when the country pulled off 2.3 percent.But it met the BOK's earlier growth forecast of 2.7 perce
Jan. 22, 2019
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Ministries in tug-of-war over export policy leadership
Tension is apparently escalating between the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Economy and Finance -- South Korea’s two-largest economy-related departments -- as the latter recently gestured at expanding its financial leverage to take over the role of being the nation’s export policy headquarters.The Finance Ministry has recently become unusually vocal toward concerns over the slowing trend of key industries, such as semiconductors and petrochemicals, to whic
Jan. 21, 2019
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[Monitor] Koreans drinking less: survey
While South Koreans drink as frequently as they used to, the average volume of alcohol consumed on each occasion has dropped consistently, a survey showed. The survey of 2,000 adults conducted jointly last year by the Food Ministry and Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation showed that consumers of alcoholic beverages drank an average of 8.8 days per month. Frequency of drinking was the same as the previous year.Respondents said they drank 6.3 cups of alcohol on each occasion, down fr
Jan. 21, 2019
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Trade minister to attend WTO reform meeting in Davos
South Korea's trade minister will attend a meeting of the World Trade Organization this week to discuss its reform measures, his office said Monday. Kim Hyun-chong will visit Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday and Friday to join a 30-member ministerial meeting on ways to reform the embattled institution. The Swiss trade minister will host the gathering on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the resort town. Kim will attend talks to discuss measures to recover confidence in the multilateral
Jan. 21, 2019
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KOTRA opens third office in Vietnam
State-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency on Monday opened its third Vietnamese office in Da Nang, seeking to support exporters in line with Seoul's New Southern Policy that centers on strengthening ties with Southeast Asian countries.The trade agency, which operates offices in Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City in the south, claimed the Da Nang branch will help around 50 South Korean firms in the central region of the country. There are some 20 South Korean companies in Da Nang.&nb
Jan. 21, 2019
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Korea's exports fall 14.6% in first 20 days of January
South Korea's exports dropped 14.6 percent on-year in the first 20 days of January, hit by a plunge in overseas shipments of semiconductors, customs data showed Monday. The country's exports stood at $25.7 billion in the January 1-20 period, according to Korea Customs Service.The customs office said daily average exports -- which reflect working days -- declined 8.7 percent on-year to $1.77 billion.By product, exports of semiconductors nosedived 28.8 percent, while shipments of passenger cars ju
Jan. 21, 2019
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Over half of Koreans predict negative economic effect from minimum wage hike
More than half of South Koreans think this year's minimum wage hike will have a negative effect on the economy, a survey showed Friday.The poll of 1,002 adults nationwide by Gallup Korea found 52 percent of people predict negative economic effects from the latest minimum wage increase. Only 24 percent said the wage hike will positively affect the Korean economy in 2019.The state-set minimum wage rose 10.9 percent to 8,350 won ($7.51) per hour this year from 7,530 won last year. Adding to the bur
Jan. 18, 2019
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Korean firms in India expresses concern over trade regulations
South Korean companies operating in India have cited various trade barriers, including tariffs, as major hurdles of doing business there, industry sources said Friday.During the conference hosted by Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in Ahmedabad, the economic hub of the Indian state of Gujarat, firms operating on the subcontinent claimed that there should be an improvement made to the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. South Korea and India implemented CEPA, a type of fre
Jan. 18, 2019
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Korea sets FCEV target at 80,000 units by 2022
South Korea will increase the number of hydrogen-powered vehicles on the roads by 80,000 units in the next four years, the finance minister said Wednesday. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki said at a ministerial meeting on innovation-led growth in Seoul that the new fuel-cell electric vehicle target is part of a broad strategy aimed at building an ecosystem for hydrogen industries. It would include producers of the fuel as well as technologies that store an
Jan. 16, 2019
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Brexit deal refusal to have limited impact on economy: ministry
The British parliament’s latest rejection of the government’s proposed Brexit deal is likely to have a limited impact on global financial markets as well as the South Korean economy, Seoul’s government said Wednesday.Vowing pre-emptive steps to counter a possible fallout, Korean authorities will work on preparations for a bilateral free trade deal with Britain, as the latter will no longer be subject to the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement upon Brexit. “The vote to reject th
Jan. 16, 2019
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Seoul to spend 537 b won for traditional markets
South Korea plans to spend 537 billion won ($478 million) to help nurture the country's traditional markets, the government said Wednesday.According to the Ministry for SMEs and Startups, around half of the earmarked budget will be spent to help expand parking space and related facilities in a way to provide visitors with easy access and other amenities. Also, the budget will be spent to remodel empty spaces at traditional markets into leisure-related facilities, refurbish restrooms and enhance
Jan. 16, 2019
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Korea jobless rate exceeds that of US in Q3
South Korea posted a higher unemployment rate than the United States in the third quarter of last year for the first time in 17 years amid a sluggish job market here, data showed Wednesday.South Korea's seasonally adjusted jobless rate came to 4 percent in the July-September period of last year, higher than 3.8 percent for America, according to the data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. South Korea's third-quarter unemployment rate was up 0.2 percentage point from t
Jan. 16, 2019
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Samsung’s Lee, SK’s Chey ‘spar’ over semiconductors in front of Moon
Owners of the world’s two largest memory chipmakers -- Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong and SK Group’s Chey Tae-won -- boasted of their business confidence during a walk with President Moon Jae-in at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday. The conglomerate chiefs were among eight business representatives that took a 25-minute walk around the Cheong Wa Dae garden after a more official business meeting. In response to Moon’s expression of concerns about a slowdown in the semiconductors market, Sa
Jan. 15, 2019
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[News Focus] Consumer confidence in Korea lowest among OECD members
SEJONG -- The atmosphere on the streets at year-end was not the same in 2018 as what people remembered from past years. To explain it, they pointed to the large number of struggling small business owners amid a sagging economy burdened by weak private consumption.Another barometer of consumption during a short period is the Lunar New Year holidays, which fall Feb. 2-6 this year, a time on which many industries are pinning their hopes.One question is whether Chinese tourists will visit South Kore
Jan. 15, 2019