SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of South Koreans aged between 40 and 64 held debt last year as more people took out loans to buy homes amid skyrocketing housing prices, data showed Tuesday. The data by Statistics Korea showed that 56.5 percent of people in the age group borrowed money from [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The government plans to establish a legal support system to protect adolescents who lack legal awareness from going bankrupt due to the debts inherited from parents. The Ministry of Justice said Wednesday that it will preemptively identify teenagers who need legal advice related to inheritance and provide them with [...]
SEOUL, June 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The self-employed’s debts grew 3.1 percent in 2019 from a year earlier as their income declined amid an economic slowdown, data showed Tuesday. Financial institutions’ loans extended to the self-employed averaged 172 million won (US$151,800) as of end-2019, compared with 167 million won the previous year, according to the [...]
SEOUL, May 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The living conditions of low-income South Koreans have not improved over the past 10 years. Income polarization accelerated during this period as the income of the upper 20 percent increased sharply, dwarfing the marginal increase in the income of the bottom 20 percent. Statistics Korea’s household trend survey showed [...]
SEOUL, April 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Nearly a quarter of companies in South Korea failed to pay the interest on their debts in 2020 despite an overall rise in corporate earnings, a report said Monday. A total of 255 listed firms in Asia’s fourth-largest economy had an interest coverage ratio of less than 1 last [...]
SEOUL, March 24 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean low-cost carriers (LCCs) are struggling with high indebtedness stemming from huge deficits due to the coronavirus pandemic, data showed Wednesday. The debt-to-equity ratio of three major LCCs — Jeju Air Co., Jin Air Co. and T’way Air Co. — ranged from 430 percent to 517 percent as [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s finance ministry has increasingly found itself in hot water over growing calls to dig deeper into state coffers in response to the pandemic-caused economic slump, as it is wary of the country’s ballooning debt. A row over the finance ministry’s fiscal role reignited this week after Prime [...]
SEJONG, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Debt held by the self-employed grew 4.7 percent in 2018, as their income fell amid the economic slowdown, raising concerns about their capacity to service debt, data showed Thursday. Average bank loans extended to a self-employed person amounted to 164 million won (US$144,000) as of end-2018, compared with 156 [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans in their 20s are overburdened with bank overdrafts and loans from credit card companies amid a jobs crunch sparked by a protracted economic slump, data showed Monday. Outstanding overdrafts and card loans extended to local 20-somethings came to some 2.15 trillion won (US$1.91 billion) as of the [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged small businesses around the country. But nowhere in the country is the devastation more visible than in Myeongdong, the popular shopping district among foreign travelers in central Seoul. The usually bustling streets, lined with cosmetics and souvenir shops, food stands and restaurants offering menus [...]