SEOUL, Jun. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s current account balance was in the red in April, the first deficit in seven years, due to flagging exports and increased dividend transfers, the central bank said Wednesday. The country’s current account deficit came to US$660 million in the month, marking a sharp turnaround from a $4.82 [...]
SEJONG, May 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking fell by one notch this year as exports and facility investments slowed down, an international institute said Wednesday. The International Institute for Management Development (IMD) said in its annual report that South Korea ranked 28th in terms of world competitiveness among 63 countries surveyed, [...]
LONDON, May 20 (Korea Bizwire) — The latest edition of PwC’s bimonthly Global Economy Watch has found that African economies could receive a windfall of £23bn if each economy applied similar governance reforms equivalent to those made by Cote d’Ivoire since 2013. The continent-wide economic analysis modelled the performance of each country across six of [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Inventory of South Korean manufacturers has increased to its highest point in 10 years, data showed Monday, a likely sign of a dulled economy. Figures obtained from the Korea Center for International Finance and Statistics Korea put the inventory-to-sales ratio in December last year at 116 percent. The number [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Major foreign investment banks (IBs) revised down their forecasts for South Korea’s economic growth for this year citing sluggish exports and slowing global demand, a report showed Sunday. The average growth forecast for 2019 by nine major global IBs stood at 2.5 percent as of end-January, down 0.1 percentage [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans’ financial literacy was slightly lower than the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries last year, a survey showed Monday. The financial literacy of South Korean people aged between 18 and 79 came to 62.2 points in 2018, according to the survey by the Bank of Korea [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of South Koreans think this year’s minimum wage hike will have a negative effect on the economy, a survey showed Friday. The poll of 1,002 adults nationwide by Gallup Korea found 52 percent of people predict negative economic effects from the latest minimum wage increase. Only [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Koreans ate out less in 2018 than a year earlier as they tightened their belt amid a weak economy, a poll showed Monday. According to the survey of 3,014 people aged 20-69, South Koreans dined out an average of 20.8 times per month last year, compared with 21.8 [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — An increasing number of South Koreans are opening their wallets to purchase plane tickets to go overseas. In fact, South Koreans spent a record-breaking amount of money overseas last year, and the total is only expected to increase in the future. Overseas consumption is gaining importance as a subset [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean economy has one of the highest portions of individuals running their own stores and shops, and they are getting pushed to the brink by a slumping economy and policy missteps, market watchers said Monday. Data from Statistics Korea put the number of self-employed people at some [...]