SEOUL, Oct. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — The costs of air and maritime cargo shipping surged to their all-time highs in South Korea, as logistics giants reduced their international schedules amid the COVID-19 pandemic, industry data showed Sunday. The average air freight rate from the benchmark Hong Kong-United States routine stood at US$9.74 per kilogram as [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean economy is facing increasing downside risks as the uptick in COVID-19 cases is delaying the recovery of private spending amid heightened uncertainty about the global economic recovery, a state-run think tank said Thursday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy is on a recovery track driven by solid exports, but [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday raised its 2021 growth outlook for the South Korean economy to 4 percent, amid the country’s strong exports and fiscal support. The latest outlook is a 0.2 percentage-point rise from its May estimate of 3.8 percent growth for Asia’s [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean economy is facing heightened uncertainty as the recovery of domestic demand is likely to slow amid a recent spike in COVID-19 cases, a state-run think tank said Sunday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy is on a recovery track amid solid exports, but the toughest-ever virus curbs, in effect [...]
SEJONG, June 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s national debt is growing at a rate of 3 million won (US$2,730) per second and stands at 17.6 million won per person, a parliamentary office said Saturday. The total debt by the central and provincial governments in Asia’s fourth-largest economy reached 912.5 trillion won as of 3:30 [...]
SEOUL, March 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Major global investment banks (IBs) have revised up their forecasts for South Korea’s 2021 economic growth for the third consecutive month amid growing expectations for a recovery, a report showed Tuesday. As of end-February, nine major global IBs, including Barclays, BoA-Merrill Lynch and Citi, forecast Asia’s fourth-largest economy to [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s economic growth rate ranked third among major economies across the globe in 2020 despite an on-year contraction due to the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Tuesday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy contracted 1 percent last year from a year earlier, but it posted the third-best performance among 15 major nations, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Several foreign investment banks (IBs) have revised up their forecasts for South Korea’s 2021 economic growth following the economy’s relatively good performance last year, a report showed Wednesday. Out of six foreign IBs and one research institute that published reports on Asia’s fourth-largest economy Tuesday, three upgraded their growth [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s finance ministry has increasingly found itself in hot water over growing calls to dig deeper into state coffers in response to the pandemic-caused economic slump, as it is wary of the country’s ballooning debt. A row over the finance ministry’s fiscal role reignited this week after Prime [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Major foreign investment banks (IBs) have slightly raised their forecasts for South Korea’s economic growth for 2021 despite the coronavirus pandemic, a report showed Thursday. As of end-December, nine major global IBs, including Barclays and Goldman Sachs, forecast the South Korean economy to grow 3.4 percent this year, up [...]