SEOUL, May 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors have ramped up their investment in South Korean bonds this year amid the country’s relatively favorable economic conditions, data showed Monday. Offshore investors held 140.9 trillion won (US$115 billion) worth of listed government and corporate bonds as of end-April, up 17 trillion won from the end of [...]
SEJONG, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s per capita national debt has surpassed 14 million won (US$11,500) and is expected to go up due to a spending hike meant to mitigate the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, data showed Sunday. The data posted on the website of the National Assembly Budget Office showed [...]
SEOUL, May 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea rose 26 percent in April from a year earlier amid the pandemic, while Japanese brands still struggle with weaker demand following ongoing trade tension between Seoul and Tokyo, an industry association said Thursday. The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to [...]
SEOUL, May 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The maximum cost of treating a critically ill patient with the new coronavirus in South Korea is estimated at 70 million won (US$57,000), a study showed Thursday. The study, conducted by the state-run National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), said it takes at least 55 million won to treat critical [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s car sales plunged 48 percent last month from a year earlier as the spreading coronavirus outbreak continued to affect vehicle production and sales, data showed on Wednesday. The country’s five carmakers — Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp., GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Corp. and SsangYong [...]
SEOUL, May 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping surged nearly 12 percent from a year earlier in March, data showed Wednesday, an apparent outcome of the new coronavirus outbreak that forced people to stay home. The value of online transactions came to about 12.58 trillion won (US$10.3 billion) in the month, up 11.8 percent from [...]
SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chip maker, said Monday that it spent 5.36 trillion won (US$4.36 billion) on research and development activities in the first quarter of the year. The investment surpassed the previous record high of 5.32 trillion won in the fourth quarter of 2018. The [...]
SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of moviegoers in South Korea dropped to an all-time low in April, data showed Saturday, as people refrained from visiting crowded places amid the new coronavirus pandemic. A total of 972,447 people went to the cinema last month, marking the first time for the figure to hover [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Overseas stock purchases by South Korean retail investors jumped to a record high level in April amid signs that the coronavirus outbreak is slowing down, data showed Friday. Korean retail investors bought US$2.01 billion worth of foreign stocks from April 1-27, marking the largest overseas stock buying on a [...]
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Three-fourths of South Korean students received private tutoring in 2019, for which they spent 6.5 hours a week on average, a new survey showed. The annual survey, released earlier this week and conducted by the national Statistics Korea and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the country’s [...]