SEOUL, Jul. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The volume of short-term “floating” capital in South Korea hit an all-time high of more than 950 trillion won (US$835 billion) amid record-low interest rates and increased uncertainties, data showed Monday. According to the Bank of Korea and the Korea Financial Investment Association, cash and other short-term capital totaled [...]
SEOUL, July 15 (Korea Bizwire) – The Bank of Korea (BOK) revealed on July 15 its ‘Adequacy Analysis of Recent Investment in Construction’ included in the Economic Outlook Report of July 2016, which showed serious concerns regarding the government’s economic stimulus plan focused on the construction industry. The BOK pointed out that Korea is following in the [...]
SEOUL, May 13 (Korea Bizwire) – More than one hundred days have passed since the Korean government established new guidelines for credit checks, leading to more rigorous income evaluations for loan applicants. The policy is part of efforts to ease the national economic debt burden, which now stands at over 1.2 quadrillion won in household [...]
SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The chief of the South Korean banks’ association said on Wednesday that the ongoing industrial restructuring will have little impact on local commercial banks, citing their minor exposure to financially troubled companies. In a press conference held in Germany on the sidelines of the 49th Asia Development Bank annual [...]
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Investors have pumped in more cash in bond funds than stock funds so far this year as they seek more stable returns, a fund rating and consulting company said Friday. Domestic bond-focused funds have seen a cash inflow of 1.37 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) this year through April 12, KG Zeroin [...]
SEOUL, April 15 (Korea Bizwire) – Following Wednesday’s unexpected election results that saw the opposition Minjoo Party perform much better than expected, previous calls for quantitative easing from the Saenuri Party are increasingly unlikely to come to fruition. The quantitative easing measures were suggested by Kang Bong-gyun, who spearheaded the Saenuri’s Party election campaign, causing conflict between the [...]
SEOUL, March 25 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s per capita income dropped in 2015 from the previous year, marking the first on-year drop in six years even though the decline was largely attributed to the depreciation of the local currency against the U.S. dollar. In 2015, the country’s per capita gross national income (GNI) came to [...]
SEOUL, Feb.10 (Korea Bizwire) – The Bank of Korea (BOK) will manage a course on economic education at a university. Bank officials announced that they will open a course called ‘Research on Policies and the Market’ at the graduate schools of economics at Yonsei and Sogang universities, and give lectures on macroeconomic theory. Employees from [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s central bank head will attend a bimonthly meeting of central bank governors from around the world, where they will exchange views on the latest financial market conditions, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Thursday. BOK Gov. Lee Ju-yeol will head to Basel, Switzerland, on Friday for the [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – An interest rate hike of just 0.25 percentage points will likely cause the household debt service burden to rise by 1.9 trillion won (US$1.6 billion) per year, hurting consumer spending and affecting overall growth, the central bank said Thursday. In a report submitted to Rep. Park Won-suk of the [...]