SEOUL, Jul. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — K-pop boy band BTS’ fan meetings and concerts in South Korea last month created an economic effect worth nearly 500 billion won (US$424.2 million), an academic report showed Wednesday. According to the report by a research team led by Pyun Ju-hyun, a business professor at Seoul’s Korea University, BTS [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will step up its efforts this week to fend off a move by Japan to impose additional trade restrictions against Seoul, according to government officials on Sunday, amid a growing trade dispute that could also disrupt global supplies of semiconductors and smartphones. Diplomatic and economic tensions are [...]
SEJONG, Jul. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Global rating agency Standard & Poor’s has sharply slashed its growth forecast for South Korea’s economy this year to 2 percent due to rising uncertainty about the global trade outlook and weaker consumption. The latest estimate represented a sharp downward revision from its previous forecast of 2.4 percent in [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Japan’s tighter regulations on some high-tech exports to South Korea will serve as a new downside risk to Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which is already struggling with a U.S.-China trade war, economists said Wednesday. In a seminar on the impact of Japan’s trade curbs, Kwon Tae-shin, president of the Korea [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s finance ministry is expected to slightly cut its growth estimate for the year in the face of a delayed recovery in chip prices and the escalating trade dispute between the United States and China, sources said Sunday. The South Korean government has been adhering to the stance [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — 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 [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s current account balance was in the red in April, the first deficit in seven years, due to flagging exports and increased dividend transfers, the central bank said Wednesday. The country’s current account deficit came to US$660 million in the month, marking a sharp turnaround from a $4.82 [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s per capital income reached a record level of over US$33,000 last year, an increase of more than $2,000 from an earlier estimate, due to a revision of the benchmark year aimed at better aligning the country’s statistics with those of other countries, the central bank said Tuesday. [...]
SEJONG, May 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking fell by one notch this year as exports and facility investments slowed down, an international institute said Wednesday. The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) said in its annual report that South Korea ranked 28th in terms of world competitiveness among 63 countries surveyed, [...]
SEOUL, May 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The labor ministry said Tuesday some small business owners responded to steep hikes in the minimum wage by firing workers, in its first official statement about the impact of the recent wage raises on employment. Between November 2018 and April, the government conducted an in-depth interview survey on four [...]