SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean shares extended their record-breaking run on Tuesday, closing more than 1 percent higher on strong foreign inflows and a surge in chip stocks. The Korean won also strengthened sharply against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 42.31 points, or 1.24 percent, to [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea is facing intensifying “agflation,” as surging agricultural prices add new pressure to household costs and expose deep structural weaknesses in the nation’s farming and distribution systems. Consumer prices for agricultural, livestock and fisheries products jumped 4.8 percent in August from a year earlier, the sharpest increase in [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Companies that suffer from at least three industrial accident deaths a year will be fined up to 5 percent of their operating profit, the labor ministry said Monday. Under the new industrial safety measures, the government will revise a law that would revoke the licenses of companies that continually [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — President Lee Jae Myung on Monday urged a broad rollback of outdated regulations and punitive measures that, he argued, have long stifled corporate initiative and deterred investment. Speaking at a meeting on regulatory reform at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, Lee said the country must [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — When South Korea announced its latest housing policy this month, officials were not only grappling with soaring property prices and supply shortages in the Seoul metropolitan area. They were also contending with a tiny, nocturnal amphibian with outsized influence: the Mongkoi. The Mongkoi (also known as narrow-mouth frog), listed [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s corporate bond market is showing renewed strength as expectations of interest rate cuts fuel demand for higher-yielding securities, driving credit spreads to their lowest levels of the year. According to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association and Infomax, the spread between three-year AA- corporate bonds and equivalent [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Group is grappling with twin challenges in the U.S. market: the imminent end of federal tax credits for electric vehicles and a delay in the completion of its joint battery plant with LG Energy Solution. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act incentives, which offered up to $7,500 in [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 300 South Korean workers detained at a U.S. battery plant construction site have safely returned home, but the shockwaves are likely to reverberate across corporate boardrooms. South Korea’s largest conglomerates — including LG Energy Solution, Hyundai Motor, Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, SK hynix, SK On, CJ CheilJedang, [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — When a popular YouTube commentator recently began selling a “990 won salt bread,” it was more than a marketing stunt. It was a pointed jab at what Koreans have come to call “breadflation,” a steep rise in bread prices that many believe has made the staple disproportionately expensive at home compared [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s consumer dispute panel has ruled that Volkswagen Group Korea must provide free inspections and replacements for defective air-conditioning systems in certain Audi Q4 e-tron 40 models, citing structural flaws that caused repeated failures. The Korea Consumer Agency’s dispute settlement committee said on Thursday that its review found the [...]