SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 60 percent of South Koreans aged between 40 and 64 held debt in 2021 as more people took out loans to purchase houses amid soaring property costs, data showed Tuesday. The proportion of middle-aged South Koreans who borrowed money from banks or other financial institutes came to 57.3 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean large companies operated below 80 percent of their capacity in the third quarter of the year due to the global economic downturn, a corporate tracker said Tuesday. The average capacity utilization rate of 200 out of the country’s top 500 firms by sales came to 78.4 percent [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Corporate retirement pension funds under management expanded 15.5 percent in 2021 from a year earlier, government data showed Monday. Cumulative corporate retirement pension funds stood at 295 trillion won (US$226 billion) as of end-December last year, up 40 trillion won from a year ago, according to the data compiled [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — The sea level of South Korea rose nearly 10 centimeters over the past 33 years as a result of climate change, government data showed Monday. The country’s average coastal surface height grew 9.9 cm between 1989 and 2021, with the yearly average coming to 3.01 milometers, according to the [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean bioindustry’s output surged more than 20 percent in 2021 from a year earlier on the back of brisk exports amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Thursday. The industry’s production came to about 21 trillion won (US$16.2 billion) last year, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea added jobs for the 21st straight month in November, but the growth continued to slow for the sixth month in a row amid the central bank’s aggressive monetary tightening, government data showed Wednesday. The number of employed people stood at 28.4 million last month, up some 626,000 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — Large companies in South Korea have seen their combined free cash flow (FCF) plunge nearly 80 percent over the past year amid concerns over a liquidity crunch stemming from high interest rates, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The total FCF of 268 out of the country’s top 500 listed [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly 55 percent of South Koreans believe the COVID-19 pandemic will become a perpetual phenomenon, a survey showed Tuesday. Only 18.7 percent of South Koreans were confident that the COVID-19 pandemic will end at some point, according to the survey released by Statistics Korea. The survey was carried out [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean e-commerce company Interpark Corp. said Tuesday its sales of plane tickets more than tripled in November from a year earlier on the back of pent-up demand for travel. Interpark said sales of plane tickets booked on its website amounted to 121.2 billion won (US$92.8 million) in November, [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The amount of time Korean people spent on the country’s most popular mobile messenger KakaoTalk was restored to the normal level two months after it suffered extensive service disruptions stemming from a fire at a data center, industry data showed Tuesday. Users spent an average of 32.18 minutes using [...]