SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s economy is expected to report a 1.81 percent on-quarter contraction in the first quarter of the year, a poll showed Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic crippled industrial output, consumer spending and job markets in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. It would be the sharpest quarterly contraction since the fourth [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half, or 63.3 percent, of South Koreans oppose an immediate easing of social distancing, a government poll showed Sunday. The results were released in line with the government’s announcement to extend a national social distancing campaign until early May, with eased regulations in some areas. Of those [...]
SEJONG, April 17 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea reported its first on-year job loss since 2009 in March as the coronavirus pandemic began inflicting damage on the job market, data showed Friday. The nation lost about 195,000 jobs last month, marking the sharpest monthly decline since May 2009, when it lost some 240,000 jobs, according [...]
SEOUL, April 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ overseas securities investment soared in the first quarter, largely on hopes that the coronavirus-hit stock prices may rebound down the road, data showed Thursday. The local investors’ transactions of overseas securities in January-March came to US$66.6 billion, up 68.2 percent from the previous quarter, according to the [...]
SEOUL, April 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of high-end consumer goods to Southeast Asia has increased sharply since 2010, data showed Thursday, led mostly by their strong demands for cosmetic goods. The country’s exports of high-end consumer goods, which include beauty and fashion items, along with luxury goods, to Singapore have been expanding [...]
SEOUL, April 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign ownership of South Korean land rose 3 percent in 2019 compared with a year earlier, the land ministry said Thursday. Foreigners owned 248.7 square kilometers — slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan — at the end of 2019. It represents 0.2 percent of South Korea’s [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Exports of Korean cultural products, including computer games, music, tour programs and cosmetics, soared 22.4 percent last year from a year earlier thanks to the global ascent of Korean culture, a report showed Tuesday. According to the report on the 2019 economic effects of hallyu, or the Korean Wave, [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean companies’ spending on research and development (R&D) climbed nearly 8 percent in 2019 despite weaker performances, a market tracker said Tuesday. Combined R&D expenditures by 208 out of the top 500 companies by sales came to 53.5 trillion won (US$43.9 billion) last year, up 7.8 percent [...]
SEJONG, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Job openings in South Korea fell at the quickest pace in more than eight years in February amid the coronavirus fallout, government data showed Monday. The number of job openings in the country stood at 139,485 at the end of February, down a whopping 63,318 positions from a year [...]
SEOUL, April 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of cybercrimes reported to police jumped 20.7 percent from the previous year to more than 180,000 cases in 2019, data showed Monday. Cybercrimes reported to police totaled 180,499 cases in 2019, compared with 149,604 in 2018, according to an annual report compiled by the National Police Agency. [...]