SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean firms’ spending on research and development (R&D) swelled 14 percent in 2022 from a year earlier despite sharply decreased operating income amid an economic slowdown, a market tracker said Wednesday. Combined R&D expenditures by 231 out of the country’s top 500 companies came to 68.4 trillion [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — Retail sales in South Korea rose 6.4 percent on-year in March as people’s growing outdoor activities boosted demand for fashion and other items, the industry ministry said Tuesday. The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers came to 14.5 trillion won (US$10.89 billion) last month, compared with [...]
SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s whisky imports shot up nearly 80 percent in the first quarter of this year on the liquor’s surging popularity among young Koreans amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Monday. The volume of imported whisky came to 8,443 tons in the January-March period, up 78.2 percent from a [...]
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) — About 56 percent of South Koreans support developing nuclear weapons to counter North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats, a survey showed Sunday. The survey of 1,008 adults, conducted by pollster Realmeter last week, found that 56.5 percent of respondents say they support building own nuclear weapons and the issue needs [...]
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) — About 60 percent of South Koreans in their 20s and 30s said unification with North Korea is not necessary, a survey showed Sunday, amid a prolonged impasse in inter-Korean relations and denuclearization talks. The survey, commissioned by a civic media group called Barun Media Citizen Action, found that 61 [...]
SEOUL, April 21 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean carmakers’ global market share inched down in 2022 from a year earlier due largely to weaker sales in China and Russia, industry data showed Friday. Local automakers accounted for 7.3 percent of vehicle sales in the world’s eight major markets last year, down from 7.7 percent in [...]
SEOUL, April 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of broiler chickens and ducks raised in South Korea fell in the first quarter of 2023 from a year earlier, data showed Thursday, following the outbreak of avian influenza. South Korean farms raised 88.85 million broilers in the January-March period, down 1.3 percent from the previous year, [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of South Koreans in the agrofisheries sector fell in 2022 from a year earlier, data showed Wednesday, reflecting the rapidly aging population. The number of households in the farming business totaled 1.02 million in 2022, down 0.8 percent from the previous year, according to the data compiled [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) — The market value of listed firms in South Korea swelled nearly 14 percent in the first quarter of 2023, with Samsung Electronics Co. retaining its top-cap status, a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The market capitalization of 2,558 companies listed on the country’s main and secondary bourses came to 2,291 [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of jobs supplied by restaurants and bars rose on-year in the second half of 2022, data showed Tuesday, as the country returned to pre-pandemic normalcy. Local restaurant businesses employed 1.6 million people in the July-December period, up 43,000 from a year earlier, according to the data compiled [...]