“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.” [...]
SEOUL, Dec 30 (Korea Bizwire) – The income gap between South Korea and North Korea hit a high point in 2013, according to a report from Statistics Korea. The annual growth rate of North Korea’s gross national income (GNI) per capita reached a lowest growth rate in seven years. The per capita GNI in [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – Intellectual property products (IPPs), which span research and development (R&D) as well as cultural entertainment, are playing a bigger role in the growth of Asia’s fourth-largest economy than during the 1970s, data showed on December 29. The net stock value of IPPs, which accounted for 2 percent of the country’s [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – The interest payment on Korea’s national debt is estimated to reach 21 trillion won (US$19.6 billion) this year, the first time in history to surpass the 20-trillion-won level. This is the burden of about 420,000 won ($391) per person from a newborn baby to a 90-year-old retiree. According to [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — The home equity loan balance for the purpose of financing the applicant’s business, paying for living expense or paying down other debts has increased close to 60 percent in three years. According to banking sources on October 5, as much as 53.8 percent (27.9 trillion won) was home equity loans out [...]
SEOUL, Sep. 28 (Korea Bizwire) – The balance of money surplus held by Korean households has approached to the 30-trillion-won level during the second quarter of this year, due to weak private consumption. This is the highest level since the Bank of Korea changed the way it compiles the data in the first quarter in [...]