WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The International Monetary Fund predicted Friday that South Korea’s economy would expand 3.7 percent this year, down 0.3 percentage point from its earlier forecast. The forecast was included in the agency’s “Global Prospects and Policy Challenges” report submitted to a meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs of [...]
SEJONG, Feb. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – Student loans from the government rose nearly three-fold from 2010 to 2014 due to tuition increases, a private research institute said Friday. Outstanding government-funded student loans came to 10.7 trillion won (US$9.8 billion) as of the end of last year, 2.9 times higher than 3.7 trillion won in 2010, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Six out of ten Korean businesses expected that currently low oil prices would produce positive effects, such as reduced production costs and sales increases. By industry, the automobile and textile industries showed high expectations, but the shipbuilding, E&C and petrochemical sectors expected losses to result from the low price of oil. [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Six years after being designated as a public institution, Korea Exchange (KRX) was finally freed from government regulation that included budget controls and audits, effectively freeing it to move forward with expansion in overseas markets. While it was listed as a public institution, KRX’s business activities were been evaluated on an [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The Financial Services Commission (FSC) has ranked CitiBank and Standard Chartered low on the list of the most innovative banks in Korea. According to the FSC’s report on Korean banks’ innovative values in the second half of 2014, revealed on January 28, Shinhan Bank ranked first, followed by Woori Bank and [...]
“One way to breathe new life into the economy is to enhance flexibility in the labor market and to be open to immigration. Of the major countries in the world, only the United States has been able to recover fully from the 2008 global financial crisis. And the key has been its flexible labor market.” [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Korea Bizwire) – The Seoul government is starting another sharing economy project, the third of its kind so far this year. Any companies or organizations of sharing economy businesses in Seoul can receive financial and administrative support by the Seoul government through its new project, ’2015 supporting project for sharing economy businesses and [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – Small investing in gold bars is gaining massive popularity in Korea. According to relevant industry experts, the sales of gold bars via the Korea Gold Exchange doubled from 704kg in 2013 to 1,383kg in 2014. The sales of gold bars during one month alone in December 2014 reached 381kg. Individuals [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – In Korea, many salaried workers laugh bitterly at themselves by saying “winning a lotto is the only way to turn around our lives.” In that sense, common workers have a slim chance of making a big fortune to better their future lives. In the sluggish economy, their wages are [...]