SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s negative economic growth is expected to be inevitable for this year in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, officials have said. Local bureaucrats’ growing pessimism about Asia’s fourth-largest economy comes as economic activity has been battered by tougher social distancing measures in the greater Seoul area in [...]
SEJONG, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s economy is likely to shrink less than expected this year thanks to its successful response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said Tuesday. In its latest report on South Korea, the Paris-based club of major economies predicted Asia’s fourth-largest economy will [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean households scrambled to pile up cash in the first quarter of the year amid growing uncertainty stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed Tuesday. Cash held by households and nonprofit organizations stood at 90.1 trillion won (US$75.9 billion) as of the end of March, up [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s economic sluggishness has eased on diminishing negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic, a state-run think tank said Sunday. South Korea’s daily new virus cases spiked more than 900 in late February, but the COVID-19 curve has since flattened sharply in recent months. The decline in infections has [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean consumers purchased far fewer nonessential items in the first quarter than normal due to economic uncertainty sparked by the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Sunday. The combined essential spending came to 84.81 trillion won (US$71 billion) in the January-March period, accounting for 40.56 percent of total household expenditures, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s economy contracted 3.3 percent in the second quarter from a quarter earlier, but it fared well compared with other major economies, data showed Sunday. South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate was the second highest among the 14 countries that included the United States, China, Germany [...]
SEOUL, July 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has reported a surplus in trade with countries with which it signed free trade pacts, data showed Thursday, in a sign that such deals help Seoul cushion the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the data by the Korea Customs Service (KCS), South Korea posted [...]
SEOUL, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Estimated financial losses caused by the new coronavirus in the areas of culture, sports and tourism in South Korea have reached over 7 trillion won (US$5.84 billion), according to the government Monday. In a report submitted to the National Assembly’s culture, tourism and sports committee, the culture ministry estimated [...]
SEOUL, July 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean economy’s dependence on Japan has been on a downward trend since Japan imposed export restrictions against South Korea in July 2019, the country’s leading business lobby group said Sunday. The share of imports from Japan among overall South Korean imports fell from 9.8 percent in Q1 [...]
SEOUL, July 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean households’ debt is one of the world’s highest when compared to the country’s economic size while its debt grew at one of the highest rates in the first three months of the year, a report showed Monday. As of end-March, South Korea’s household debt came to 97.9 [...]