SEOUL, April 24 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean households’ debts owed to the nonbanking sector spiked over the past two months, suggesting that those with low credit ratings opted to borrow money despite relatively higher interest, central bank data showed Sunday. According to the data by the Bank of Korea, the outstanding household debts owed [...]
SEOUL, April 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Household loans extended by local banks rose at a fast clip in March due to a large increase in mortgage loans, central bank data showed Monday. Outstanding household loans extended by lenders here came to 649 trillion won (US$564.2 billion) as of end-March, up 4.9 trillion won from the [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 1 (Korea Bizwire) –South Korea’s exports contracted at the steepest rate in six years in October as outbound shipments backtracked for the 10th straight month this year, the government said Sunday. Outbound shipments came to US$43.47 billion last month, down 15.8 percent from the same month last year, the sharpest drop since a [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – A growing number of South Korean companies failed to generate enough operating profit to pay tax and interest payments on their debt, potentially raising downside risks in Asia’s fourth-largest economy, data showed Sunday. Out of 628 listed companies excluding financial firms, 34.9 percent of the companies failed to make [...]
SEJONG, July 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea will invest nearly 10 trillion won (US$88 billion) over the next three years to help boost its exports, the government said Thursday. The move comes as the country posted an on-year drop in its exports for six consecutive months since January. In the first six months of [...]
“The outbreak is a source of concern and could hurt consumption and business investment. Everything possible is being done to contain the spread of MERS with efforts being made to check its impact on the economy and come up with counter measures to limit fallout.” “The government will come up with measures to prop up [...]
SEOUL, March 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean economy expanded 3.3 percent in 2014 as increased facility investments offset slowing growth in construction investment and exports, the central bank said Wednesday. The revised 2014 reading by the Bank of Korea (BOK) is on par with an earlier estimate of 3.3 percent released in January. It [...]
SEOUL, March 11 (Korea Bizwire) – Household loan growth at South Korean banks more than doubled in February from a month earlier on robust property transactions and solid demand for loans amid low interest rates, central bank data showed Wednesday. Household loans, which include mortgage lending, extended by local lenders reached 566 trillion won (US$503 [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Korea Bizwire) – More than 90 percent of South Koreans believe the country’s economy has entered a state of depression, a survey showed Sunday, with many expecting current conditions to persist down the road. In a nationwide survey of 800 people over the age of 19, 93.9 percent of the respondents said [...]
“One way to breathe new life into the economy is to enhance flexibility in the labor market and to be open to immigration. Of the major countries in the world, only the United States has been able to recover fully from the 2008 global financial crisis. And the key has been its flexible labor market.” [...]