SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has launched task forces under several ministries to beef up the monitoring of prices of key food and other major items and to implement necessary measures swiftly as part of efforts to bring inflation under control, officials said Monday. The establishment of the entities, led by vice [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of non-wage workers, such as the self-employed, in South Korea rose 0.56 percent on-year in 2023, data showed Wednesday. There were 6.72 million non-salaried workers as of August, up 38,000 from the same period in 2022, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number accounts for [...]
SEJONG, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports moved up on-year for the first time in 13 months in October, driven by robust automobile shipments, along with signs of improvement in the chip sector, data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments moved up 5.1 percent on-year to US$55 billion last month, according to the data compiled [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s consumer sentiment slid for the third straight month in October amid woes over an economic slowdown, slumping exports and weakened spending power, a central bank poll showed Wednesday. The composite consumer sentiment index stood at 98.1 in October, down from 99.7 the previous month, marking the lowest [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean economy is forecast to be on a recovery track next year but the pace will be “very gradual” as China’s significant economic slowdown and a recession in the United States would hinder the growth of its exports, a senior Fitch Ratings analyst said Friday. Jeremy Zook, [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Geopolitical risks stemming from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are feared to cause a flare-up in inflation and ripple effects for the South Korean financial market and the real economy, the finance minister said Thursday. Choo Kyung-ho made the assessment during a parliamentary audit [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Global credit appraiser Fitch Ratings has reaffirmed South Korea’s sovereign rating at “AA-” with a stable outlook, the finance ministry said Tuesday. Fitch has maintained the level of AA- for South Korea, the fourth-highest level on its sovereign ratings table, since September 2012 when it upgraded the rating by [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – The repercussions of the economic downturn have reverberated in the imported electric vehicle market, drawing attention to the widening wealth gap often described as “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” While sales of domestic electric vehicles (EVs) have been lackluster this year, there has been a notable surge in [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Foreign investors have dumped South Korean stocks for 15 consecutive trading days, the longest streak logged since 2020, according to the bourse operator Sunday. Foreigners offloaded a net 2.5 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) on the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) from Sept. 18 to last Friday, according [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s on-year employment growth accelerated for the second consecutive month in September, but jobs in the manufacturing sector fell by the most in five months amid an economic slowdown, data showed Friday. The number of employed people came to 28.69 million last month, up around 309,000 from a [...]