The Korea-Turkey Free Trade Agreement will enter into force officially on May 1, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Monday. “Once the FTA takes effect in May, Korea and Turkey will eliminate tariffs on all industrial goods within seven years,” a ministry official said. The trade deal was officially signed on Aug. 1, 2012, but its implementation had been delayed until its approval by Turkey’s parliament. South Korea’s National Assembly ratified the bilateral FTA late last yea

The Korea-Turkey Free Trade Agreement will enter into force officially on May 1, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Monday. “Once the FTA takes effect in May, Korea and Turkey will eliminate tariffs on all industrial goods within seven years,” a ministry official said. The trade deal was officially signed on Aug. 1, 2012, but its implementation had been delayed until its approval by Turkey‘s parliament. South Korea’s National Assembly ratified the bilateral FTA late last yea

South Korea's consumer prices increased at a slower pace in March, keeping its on-year growth in the 1-percent range for the fifth straight month, a government report showed Monday.The country's consumer prices index rose 1.3 percent on-year in March, slowing from a 1.4 percent gain in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea. From a month earlier, it dropped 0.2 percent.The on-year figure represents the fifth straight month since November that the price growth has stayed

The government plans to announce its first set of measures aimed at reviving the sluggish real estate market on Monday.The comprehensive plan would likely include various tax cuts on housing transactions. The Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport have been drawing up the measures.The government had said that it would announce the housing plan before it devised an extra budget to secure funding for job creation and SMEs. The supplementary budget will likely take

Overseas orders won by South Korean builders surged significantly in the first quarter from a year earlier, the construction ministry said Sunday, reflecting a possible recovery in the global construction market.According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, overseas deals signed by South Korean construction companies totaled $12.5 billion in the January-March period, up 56 percent from the same period last year.The ministry noted the figure fell a little short of the five-year

CJ Korea Express Corp., South Korea’s largest logistics firm, unveiled an ambitious plan Sunday to become the world’s fifth-largest logistics company by 2020, one day before its scheduled merger with its affiliate and the country’s second-largest logistics company CJ GLS Inc.Company officials said the merger will be completed Monday with Lee Chae-wook, a former chairman of GE Korea, tapped to lead the new CJ Korea Express.“Our country is producing many of the world’s No. 1 products in various in

The average price of vehicles shipped overseas by South Korean automakers grew 4.4 percent from a year earlier in the first two months of the year, more than offsetting a drop in the volume of their shipments, an industry group said Sunday.According to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, the number of cars shipped overseas by the country’s five automakers in the first two months of the year dropped 5 percent to 518,251 units from 545,796 units in the same period last year.The average

South Korean stocks are expected to trade higher this week on the back of rising hopes for the government’s envisioned extra budget plan to bolster the local economy, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index closed up 56.18 points, or 2.88 percent, to 2,004.89 on Friday from the previous week.Earlier last week, the KOSPI advanced on the eased concerns over the eurozone as Cyprus reached a final deal on Monday to receive a bailout worth 10 billion euros ($12.82 billion) to pr