SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Inflation remains generally stable, but uncertainties surrounding consumer prices remain high due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s new tariff scheme, the central bank said Friday. Bank of Korea (BOK) Deputy Gov. Kim Woong made the assessment during a meeting to review price trends, following government data that showed [...]
SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean government on Thursday announced a sweeping plan to manage the country’s growing number of vacant homes, aiming to turn more than 134,000 unused properties into assets that support regional revitalization and public safety. Unveiled during an economic policy meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance [...]
SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial industry is accelerating efforts to tokenize traditional assets such as stocks, deposits, and loans, positioning blockchain-backed digital certificates as a cornerstone of the sector’s next phase of innovation. According to a recent report by the Korea Institute of Finance, the global transaction volume of real-world asset [...]
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s financial regulator said Tuesday it plans to ease capital adequacy requirements for insurance companies to help lessen their burdens and raise the quality of their capital base. The Financial Services Commission said it will complete procedures needed to revise related laws on insurers’ capital adequacy ratio by [...]
WASHINGTON, April 25, (Korea Bizwire) — The International Monetary Fund has halved its 2025 growth outlook for South Korea, citing the combined effects of escalating U.S. tariffs and domestic political instability. It marks the steepest downgrade among major economic forecasts for the country to date. Rahul Anand, head of the IMF’s Korea mission, explained the [...]
SEOUL, April 25, (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s largest corporations are ramping up their responses to the renewed threat of U.S. tariffs under the Trump administration by stockpiling inventory and expanding production within the United States, signaling a shift toward more aggressive contingency planning. During first-quarter earnings calls on April 24, companies across the automotive, [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Daily foreign exchange (FX) trading by banks in South Korea reached an all-time high in the first quarter of 2025 on increased demand from cross-border trading and the volatile won-dollar exchange rate, central bank data showed Friday. The daily FX turnover, including trading of derivatives, came to an average [...]
SEOUL, April 25, (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s leading non-life insurers are scaling back coverage for caregiver expense riders as soaring loss ratios threaten profitability. On April 24, 2025, industry officials confirmed that companies including Samsung Fire & Marine and Meritz Fire & Marine have reduced the daily coverage limit for caregiver expenses tied to [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top central banker has said global trade tensions sparked by the United States’ sweeping tariff policy are a major headwind for the country’s export-driven economy, and the issue will likely accelerate its efforts to diversify supply chains. Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Rhee Chang-yong made the assessment [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s domestic consumption has entered a prolonged downward trend, driven not by short-term disruptions like COVID-19 or inflation, but by deep-rooted structural issues such as demographic aging, employment patterns, and industrial shifts, according to a new report released on April 23, 2025, by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and [...]