SEOUL, June 11 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s exports went up 5.4 percent from a year earlier in the first 10 days of this month driven by robust demand for semiconductors and automobiles, data showed Wednesday. Outbound shipments reached US$15.47 billion in the June 1-10 period, compared with $14.68 billion tallied a year earlier, according [...]
SEOUL, June 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Only six percent of 171 listed companies on South Korea’s main stock exchange have adopted cumulative voting, a system aimed at enhancing shareholder rights, according to a report released Wednesday by a local research institute. Happy ESG, a corporate governance research group, analyzed the governance structures of 171 companies [...]
Seoul, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean Air, Genesis, and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones topped the list of premium brands most favored by South Korea’s top corporate leaders, according to a new survey released Tuesday by the business journal Hyundai Management. The annual Best Premium Brands survey, based on responses from 100 CEOs at Korea’s 500 largest [...]
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean consumers ranked the dawn delivery market as the most consumer-friendly, while wedding services received the lowest score in a nationwide survey released Tuesday by the Korea Consumer Agency. The findings are part of the agency’s “2024 Consumer Market Evaluation Index,” which assesses how consumer-oriented various markets are [...]
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean companies turned to banks at a significantly higher rate in the first quarter of 2025, with demand for operating funds driving a sharp rise in corporate borrowing, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bank of Korea (BOK). The total outstanding loans to local companies reached 1,979.5 [...]
SEOUL, June 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Transactions of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives rose to the highest level last year, helped by a sharp increase in currency forwards and interest swaps, data showed Tuesday. The combined turnover of OTC derivatives, including stock options and interest rate swaps, came to 26,461 trillion won (US$19.41 trillion) last year, up [...]
SEOUL, June 9 (Korea Bizwire) — A majority of South Korean exporters recognize the need to employ artificial intelligence (AI) in their businesses to boost efficiency, but only a small fraction are actively utilizing the technology, a survey showed Monday. According to the survey conducted from Feb. 17-19 by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), [...]
SEOUL, June 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of employees newly registered for the country’s four major state insurance programs fell to a record low in 2023, marking the second consecutive year of decline, data showed Wednesday. A total of 26.14 million people were registered as employees in 2023, up 0.3 percent, or 88,000 individuals, [...]
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) — For the first time since statistics began in 2018, South Korea’s once-booming coffee shop sector has shrunk, alongside a broader pullback across key self-employment industries. The decline underscores mounting pressure on small business owners from domestic economic stagnation, market saturation, and rising operating costs. According to data released Sunday by [...]
SEOUL, May 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Roughly 230,000 foreign nationals worked in South Korea’s construction industry in 2024, accounting for 14.7% of the sector’s total workforce, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association. Of these, over 83% were ethnic Korean Chinese, or Joseonjok, highlighting their dominant role in [...]