SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean listed companies saw their first-half earnings plunge sharply, data showed Wednesday, due mainly to the fallout of the new coronavirus pandemic. The combined net profit of 690 listed firms on the main KOSPI bourse reached 25.54 trillion won (US$21.6 billion) in the January-June period, down 34 percent [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s major banks are likely to continue to provide financial support for smaller firms and one-man operations to help them tide over the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, industry sources said Tuesday. The country’s five key lenders — KB Kookmin, Shinha, Hana, Woori and NH Nonghyup — have [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — The daily turnover of South Korea’s gold market hit a record high in July amid a surge in trade in the precious metal, the local exchange said Wednesday. The market’s daily turnover averaged 13.1 billion won (US$11.1 million) in July, more than double the amount of 5.2 billion won [...]
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. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Bank, South Korea’s top internet-only lender, said Wednesday its second-quarter earnings soared nearly ninefold from a year ago due mainly to more interest income. Net profit came to 26.8 billion won (US$22.5 million) in the April-June period, up 793.3 percent from a year earlier, the lender said in [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea on Tuesday unveiled an unprecedented plan to supply more than 130,000 homes in Seoul and adjacent areas over the next eight years in its latest struggle to contain a further rise in housing prices, which have even dragged down the Moon Jae-in administration’s approval ratings. But the [...]
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 [...]