SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean shares hit this year’s new high on Friday, led by the continued rally of the top cap Samsung Electronics. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) gained 0.77 point, or 0.04 percent, to 2,056.24. Samsung Electronics climbed 2.13 [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio are approaching their end, and South Korea has so far progressed with rather unsatisfactory results – currently ranked eleventh with seven gold medals – compared to the past two summer Olympics in London (fifth place with 13 gold medals) and Beijing (seventh place [...]
SEJONG, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea is considering selling state bonds that mature in 50 years as part of efforts to manage fiscal policy in a more stable manner, the finance ministry here said Tuesday. It will decide the exact timing of the issuance and detailed terms and conditions, as well as the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – Iris scanning is no longer something from the future, or a mundane cliché technology from a sci-fi movie. With Samsung Electronics introducing a form of the technology in its latest flagship phablet, the Galaxy Note 7, it’s clear that a new era of personal identification is here. Boasting its [...]
YEOSU, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s leading financial services group, Mirae Asset Group, has formed a consortium with Britain’s Castlepines Corporation, an international equity fund, to invest 1 trillion won ($911 billion) to acquiring Gyeongdo Island, off the coast of Yeosu, and develop it into a next generation tourism hub in Korea. In this 70-30 investment [...]
SEJONG, Aug. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s jobless rate dropped slightly in July from a year earlier, with the unemployment rate for young adults also declining, a government report showed Wednesday. The unemployment rate in Asia’s fourth-largest economy stood at 3.5 percent last month, compared with 3.6 percent tallied in June, according to the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – The Korean won has gained strength in recent months but not everyone is happy about the currency’s surge in value, especially Korean businesses that rely heavily on exports. A recent report authored by senior researcher Lee Chang-sun at the LG Economic Research Institute noted that “the strengthening Korean won [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s mobile banking, mostly based on smartphones, continued to grow quickly in the second quarter of 2016, with the daily average transaction volume exceeding 3 trillion won (US$2.7 billion), central bank data showed Tuesday. The daily transaction volume rose 6.3 percent on-quarter to 3.78 trillion won during the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s per capita income could plunge by up to 30 percent if the divided two Koreas are unified, a report showed Tuesday. In the report to assess a unified peninsula’s economic potential, the Korea Development Institute (KDI) estimated that South Korea’s per capita gross national income (GNI) could [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean investors have been putting a large amount of money in high-return bond funds amid weak economic growth this year, with stock funds suffering a massive outflow, data showed Tuesday. According to the data by fund researcher Zeroin, local investors added a net 5.87 trillion won (US$5.3 billion) [...]