SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s dependence on large companies for economic growth deepened in 2017, with global tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. alone accounting for nearly 15 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP), a corporate tracker said Wednesday. The combined sales of Samsung and the nine other largest companies by turnover [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Inflationary pressure is likely to build up in South Korea down the road due to rising oil prices, the fallout from a record heat wave and signs of increasing public utility rates, analysts here said Tuesday. Looming large are surging international crude prices, which come as a big drag [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — A tax imposed on new car owners known as the special consumption tax will be lowered temporarily until the end of the year starting with car purchases made today. For example, consumers who buy a mid-sized sedan for 20 million won will be paying 430,000 won less tax due [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — Escalating global protectionism, sparked by a Sino-American trade war, has put corporate Korea in a tight spot as it is feared to take a toll on exports, a key growth engine for Asia’s fourth-largest economy, industry sources said Friday. The United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top financial regulator said Sunday that it will tighten capital regulations on high-risk household lending, in the latest move meant to slow the pace of household debt growth. The stricter regulations will be applied to banks, savings banks and insurance firms that provide loans to home buyers [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Korea Bizwie) — South Koreans’ positive perception towards small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was far lower than large conglomerates, a business association said Monday. In an October survey of 1,000 people aged 20 or older, the Korea Federation of SMEs found that their positive perception towards SMEs stood at 51.4 points, down [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Major foreign investment banks (IBs) have upgraded their 2018 growth forecasts for the South Korean economy on its strong exports, a report showed Thursday. According to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance, Barclays, Goldman Sachs and seven other foreign IBs have forecast Asia’s fourth-largest economy to [...]
SEJONG, Nov. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — When President Moon Jae-in took office after his victory in the unprecedented presidential by-election in May, he was confronted with tough challenges ranging from social upheaval caused by his predecessor to heightened regional diplomatic and military tensions. One of the biggest issues confronting the chief executive was finding a [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s economic growth ranking among major advanced and emerging economies plunged 10 spots in the second quarter from three months earlier as its recovery lost ground, data showed Tuesday. Asia’s fourth-largest economy expanded 0.6 percent on-quarter in the April-June period, compared with a 1.1 percent expansion for the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – Corporate lending extended by South Korea’s nonbank financial institutions surged nearly 17 percent in the first half of the year amid tougher rules for household loans, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding corporate loans by local secondary financial institutions, including credit cooperatives and savings banks, came to 113.4 trillion [...]