SEOUL, March 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea will temporarily exempt people from 22 visa-waiver nations, including the United States, Japan and Taiwan, from mandatory online travel permits and transit visa requirements as part of efforts to attract more foreign tourists and boost domestic demand, the finance ministry said Wednesday. These are a set of [...]
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 [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The lower income tier spent more than half of its disposable income on food in the third quarter of this year, with consumers directly exposed to surging prices, the statistics agency said Monday. Statistics Korea’s Household Income and Expenditure Survey showed that households located in the lower 20 percent [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Close to 6 in 10 South Koreans are planning to cut back on spending for the latter part of this year due to skyrocketing prices and soaring interest rates, a poll showed Tuesday. The Federation of Korean Industries conducted a nationwide survey of some 1,000 South Koreans over 18 [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea said Thursday it plans to spend 74 trillion won (US$53.4 billion) on supporting low-income families, senior citizens and other vulnerable people next year in a bid to ease the burden of rising living costs. The government plans to increase its budget spending by 8.7 trillion won in [...]
SEOUL, May 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping spending increased after social distancing rules were lifted. According to the survey conducted jointly by local e-commerce platforms Gmarket and Auction of 5,320 customers, 51 percent of the respondents said their spending increased somewhat in May after social distancing rules were fully lifted, followed by 26 percent [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — The rising ‘revenge spending’ trend spawning from demand for consumption during the pandemic has prompted a growing number of Koreans to spend more than 1 million won (US$789) on a single transaction this year. Major credit card issuer Samsung Card Co. reported that the number of transactions involving payments [...]
SEOUL, April 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The COVID-19 pandemic has dampened overall consumption in South Korea, but spending on insurance has been an exception, a report showed. Domestic households’ monthly insurance expenditures averaged 84,000 won (US$69.15) in 2019 but rose to 89,000 won in 2020 and 92,000 won in 2021, according to a report from [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A growing number of men are buying leggings and cosmetics for their own use. Shinhan Card Co., a major credit card company in South Korea, analyzed purchases of leggings using the company’s credit cards between January and September of last year, which showed that purchases among men had jumped [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — In the third quarter of last year, which marked the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, single-person households consisting of young people under 40 years of age marked a sharp increase in their spending on drinking and smoking compared to a year earlier. This group’s monthly spending for purchases [...]