SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean institutions’ investment in foreign securities shrank 5 percent in the third quarter due to estimated losses from their bond and stock holdings, central bank data showed Friday. The outstanding value of foreign securities held by local institutional investors stood at US$354.93 billion as of end-September, down $18.69 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping in South Korea advanced 8.2 percent on-year in October as demand for travel and transportation services increased on eased COVID-19 restrictions, data showed Thursday. The value of online shopping transactions came to 17.71 trillion won (US$13.5 billion) in October, compared with 16.3 trillion won tallied a year [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign ownership of South Korean land rose 1.2 percent in the first half of 2022 from the end of 2021, the land ministry said Thursday. Foreigners owned 260.75 square kilometers — slightly more than four times the size of Manhattan — at the end of June. It represents 0.26 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s whisky imports spiked nearly 62 percent in the first 10 months of the year as more people drank at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Thursday. The value of imported whisky stood at US$218 million in the January-October period, up 61.8 percent from a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imports of camping and hiking equipment rose 2.5 percent on-year through October this year, data showed Wednesday, as more people enjoyed activities avoiding crowds amid the pandemic. The combined imports of leisure equipment, including camping and hiking gear, came to US$304 million in the January-October period, rising [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Large South Korean companies saw their third-quarter borrowing costs jump more than 40 percent from a year earlier due to rising interest rates, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The combined interest cost of 268 out of the country’s top 500 firms by sales came to 6.2 trillion won (US$4.7 [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ overseas card spending continued to grow in the third quarter as outbound travel spiked bolstered by eased pandemic curbs, central bank data showed Tuesday. The amount of money spent overseas by South Koreans with cards, including credit and debit cards, came to US$3.81 billion in the July-September [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Retail sales in South Korea grew 7.3 percent on-year in October, as people’s outdoor activities and demand for various services grew amid eased antivirus curbs, data showed Tuesday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers came to 14.66 trillion won (US$10.95 billion) last month, compared with [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 60 percent of economic and financial experts worry that South Korea could face a financial crisis in the short term amid concerns that spiking borrowing costs could weigh on businesses and households, a central bank survey showed Sunday. According to the survey that the Bank of Korea (BOK) [...]
SEJONG, Nov. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea added 628,000 jobs for wage workers in the second quarter of 2022 amid the recovery of the services and construction sectors amid eased COVID-19 restrictions, data showed Thursday. The number of paid employee jobs came to 20.2 million in the April-June period, up from 19.57 tallied a [...]