SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors bought South Korean stocks and bonds worth US$3.48 billion in October due to expectations of improved corporate earnings amid eased tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the central bank said Wednesday. Local stocks and bonds bought by foreign investors stood at $2.84 billion and $650 million, respectively, the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The Financial Action Task Force announced it will continue its countermeasures against North Korea during a general meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina. According to the Financial Services Commission (FSC) on Monday, the FATF has decided to maintain its economic sanctions at the highest level for the seventh consecutive year [...]
SEJONG, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of temporary workers in South Korea rose slightly this year from 2016, with its percentage also gaining ground, government data showed Friday. A total of 6.54 million workers were non-regular workers, part-timers and outsourced laborers as of August 2017, up 1.5 percent, or 98,000, from a year ago, according to the data by Statistics Korea. They accounted for 32.9 percent of the country’s salaried [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top economic policymaker said Friday that the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics will be a boon for the country tourism industry, coupled with recent improvement in relationship with China. “Tourism is an important industry that creates more jobs than other sectors,” Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s 100 richest people own stocks worth more than one third of the country’s national budget amid a recent stock rally, industry data showed Thursday. The value of stocks held by the 100 richest people reached 123.2 trillion won (US$110.5 billion) as of the end of Wednesday, up [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – The head of the Fair Trade Commission, Kim Sang-jo, announced plans to investigate the management of private foundations owned by major companies, as part of efforts to reform conglomerates and improve transparency, during a policy meeting today. The FTC made the announcement at today’s policy gathering in Seoul with [...]
SEJONG, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s exports jumped 7.1 percent in October from a year earlier on the back of strong demand for semiconductors, ships and petrochemical products, government data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments came to US$45 billion for October, up from $41.9 billion tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – A South Korean think tank on Wednesday revised up its growth outlook for Asia’s fourth-largest economy this year to 3.1 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from its previous estimate in July. The upward revision by the Korea Institute of Finance is higher than growth outlooks estimated by the Korean [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s credit default swap has risen by over 25 basis points since the beginning of this year, reaching nearly 70 bps, amid growing political tensions surrounding North Korea and the U.S.’s hardline stance. According to data by financial information firm Markit and Yonhap Infomax, the five-year credit default [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Korea Bizwire) – Japanese pension fund executive Hiromichi Mizuno has said investment directed by environmental, social and governance issues is necessary to encourage women to participate in the labor force and build a sustainable society. Mizuno, who is the chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), among the world’s biggest pension [...]