SEJONG, Jan. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – Sales of the Korean lottery Lotto hit their highest last year, statistics from the operator showed Monday, a trend that comes during economic slumps, social analysts say. The statistics from the Korea Lottery Commission said Lotto sales reached 3.55 trillion won (US$3.02 billion), or 3.55 billion tickets, last year, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – South Koreans, both poor and rich, are tightening their belts with no economic recovery in sight and the prices of goods ascending, data showed Wednesday. The spending-to-income ratio of local households hit a record low despite stagnant wage levels. Department stores and duty-free shops, two routine shopping spots for [...]
SEJONG, Jan. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s national tax revenue increased sharply in the first 11 months of last year despite the protracted economic slowdown, government data showed Tuesday. The government collected a total of 230.5 trillion won (US$192 billion) in taxes through November in 2016, up 24.5 trillion won from a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Prices are soaring despite a prolonged economic downturn, and the term “stagflation” is now being bandied about to describe the potential future of the South Korean economy. According to Statistics Korea, the consumer price index last month was up 1.3 percent from the year prior. The index, which remained [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – When times are hard, people look back and start immersing themselves in nostalgia, because reality simply doesn’t feel good enough. The recent comebacks of first generation K-pop idols amidst the worst economic downturn that Korea has suffered since the 2008 financial crisis are offering a trip down memory lane, [...]
JEONJU, South Korea, Jan. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Claw machines are back, and arcades offering a dozen, or dozens, of the machines are found on almost every corner of busy neighborhoods in Korean cities. Jeonju, a small city in North Jeolla Province with a little over 650,000 residents, is no exception. Famous for its Hanok [...]
SEJONG, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s economic growth is not creating as many jobs as before, government analysis indicated Tuesday, saddling the country with bad news when growth projections are being marked down. Numbers provided by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Statistics Korea show the government expects 2.6 percent economic expansion [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – Forty-two percent of South Korean households believe their economic conditions will deteriorate next year, according to a survey by Gallup Korea released Friday. The survey suggested that South Korea’s consumer confidence has sharply eroded amid uncertainties in the troubled shipping and shipbuilding sectors, and an ongoing influence-peddling scandal involving [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean household debt rose in 2016 from a year earlier as people borrowed money from banks and other financial companies to buy homes, and invest in real estate and businesses, government data showed Tuesday. The average household debt was tallied at 66.55 million won (US$56,000) as of end-March [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s consumer spending sank to a “seriously” low level in the third quarter of the year, government data showed Monday, as most households tightened their purse strings amid slowing economic growth. Slumping household consumption is widely feared to come as a further drag on Asia’s fourth-largest economy struggling [...]