SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea plans to continue efforts to tame inflation amid the annual “gimjang” season during which households make kimchi ahead of winter, the deputy finance minister said Thursday. The remark followed reports that this year’s average price of making kimchi with 20 cabbages is estimated at 191,000 won (US$147), [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended South Korea maintain a restrictive monetary policy to bring inflation under control, though the country is expected to reach its inflation target of 2 percent by the end of next year. The organization made the call in its report on the South Korean [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has launched a government-wide special scheme on the management of prices of key food and other items to bring inflation under control, the finance ministry said Thursday. Vice ministers of all government ministries are supposed to be in charge of monitoring prices of items concerned and implementing [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has launched task forces under several ministries to beef up the monitoring of prices of key food and other major items and to implement necessary measures swiftly as part of efforts to bring inflation under control, officials said Monday. The establishment of the entities, led by vice [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Geopolitical risks stemming from the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are feared to cause a flare-up in inflation and ripple effects for the South Korean financial market and the real economy, the finance minister said Thursday. Choo Kyung-ho made the assessment during a parliamentary audit [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will be fully prepared for any scenarios related to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas to minimize its impact on inflation and the broader economy, a senior finance ministry official said Thursday. First Vice Finance Minister Kim Byoung-hwan made the remarks while presiding [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s consumer prices are expected to grow at a faster pace in the coming months after a monthslong downtrend due mainly to rising global oil prices, officials said Sunday. Consumer prices, a key gauge of inflation, are forecast to rise more than 3 percent from a year earlier, [...]
SEOUL, June 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s middle class experienced a heavier burden from the country’s steep inflation in 2022 compared with the lower- and upper-income brackets, data showed Friday. According to an experimental report released by Statistics Korea, the on-year rise in consumer prices for the middle class came to 5.2 percent in [...]
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) —Homeplus, a large discount store in South Korea, has reported a 36% increase in sales of its own-brand “Homeplus Signature” products from January to March compared to the same period last year. The sales of private label products were particularly high in food categories such as refrigerated convenience foods, snacks, [...]
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Impacted by high interest rates, high inflation and a stagnant job market, South Korea’s consumption has been on a downward trend since the autumn of 2022. According to data from Statistics Korea, the nation’s seasonally adjusted retail sales index stood at 103.9 in January, down 5.03 percentage points compared [...]