SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping in South Korea increased 7.3 percent on-year in November on the back of higher demand for travel and transportation services, data showed Tuesday. The value of online shopping transactions came to 18.12 trillion won (US$14.2 billion) in November, compared with 16.8 trillion won tallied a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The value of shares held by South Korea’s 33 major business group chiefs tumbled nearly 30 percent in 2022 amid a bearish stock market, a corporate tracker said Tuesday. The business tycoons held stocks worth a combined 45.9 trillion won (US$35.9 billion) as of the end of December 2022, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s electricity consumption touched a record monthly high in December as the country was gripped by a nationwide cold wave and heavy snow, the power operator said Tuesday. The country’s average maximum power consumption stood at 82,716 megawatts (MW) last month, up 5.1 percent from a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports of farm and fisheries products reached an all-time high last year, surpassing the US$10 billion mark for the second consecutive year, data showed Monday. Outbound shipments of agricultural and fisheries goods rose 5.45 percent on-year to come to a record high of $11.98 billion in 2022, [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Banks’ rates charged on new household loans in November hit the highest level in over a decade, affected by the central bank’s aggressive rate increases to tame inflation, data showed Friday. Banks’ household lending rate applied to new loans last month stood at 5.57 percent per annum on average, [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Travel demand to Japan has exploded in South Korea amid a weak yen and Japan’s easing of virus restrictions, industry data showed Friday. Japan resumed visa-free entry of international travelers in early October, after two years of strict border control to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Japanese [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Retail sales in South Korea grew 8.4 percent on-year in November on the back of major shopping events and growing demand for foodstuff and other items during the World Cup, the industry ministry said Thursday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers came to 14.8 trillion [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of party supplies, such as decorations and balloons, hit a record-high through November this year, customs data showed Thursday, as the country has lifted social-distancing rules. The combined imports of party supplies over the January-November period came to US$64 million, up 31.7 percent from a year [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean shipbuilders lagged behind their Chinese rivals in terms of new global orders in 2022 to take the No. 2 spot in the world for the second straight year, industry data showed Thursday. Local shipbuilders clinched a combined 15.64 million compensated gross tons (CGTs) in new orders this [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of babies born in South Korea reached yet another record low in October, data showed Wednesday, underscoring the country’s chronic low birthrate. A total of 20,658 babies were born in October, down 0.4 percent from the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It marked [...]