South Korea will help sustain its economic growth this year by frontloading its budget spending during the first half in the face of tough economic conditions at home and abroad, the finance minister said Wednesday.“We will introduce a plan next week to frontload (this year‘s) fiscal budget in order to systematically support expenditures being pursued by each ministry and agency,” Bahk Jae-wan told a crisis management meeting with other policymakers. “I want you to make sure that the assigned bu

Korea’s financial watchdog is moving to reform the country’s banking law, its chief said Wednesday, amid mounting controversy over a U.S. fund’s plan to sell its controlling stake in Korea Exchange Bank.The envisioned law amendment revolves around a clause that prohibits a non-financial player from holding more than a 4 percent stake in local commercial banks.“The non-financial player policy was adopted in 2002. Since then, issues (over the policy) have been raised several times,” said Financial

Foreign investment banks have painted a rosy picture of the local stock market’s performance this year, citing the country’s strong economic fundamentals, a report showed Wednesday. Citigroup and other IBs also based their optimistic outlook on the undervaluation of the local stock market compared to their counterparts in emerging economies, according to the report by the Korea Center for International Finance. In addition, the foreign IBs said the Korean government has ample room to take measur

Overseas orders for industrial plants won by Korean builders rose to a new all-time high last year on growing demands from developing countries in the Middle East and South America, the government said Wednesday.Local companies clinched $64.98 billion worth of overseas orders in 2011, up from the previous record of $64.48 billion secured a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.The 2011 figure marks a positive growth for eight consecutive years since 2003. The ministry said

Lotte Group, Korea’s top retail conglomerate, will set up a mega shopping complex in Incheon by 2015 to cater to the growing population in the area driven by the brisk housing and industrial development. The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority said Tuesday it forged a deal with Lotte Asset Development Co. for the 1 trillion won ($872 million) project. The company plans to break ground in the fourth quarter of the year.The complex will house a department store, a discount supermarket and numerou

Korea has been faring relatively well economically, but it still lags behind in terms of social integration, infrastructure and other non-economic areas, a government report showed Wednesday.“Our country is faring well in the economic sector, but we remain weak in terms of social integration, social capital and natural resources,” the finance ministry said in the report that analyzed the nation’s competitiveness in comparison with other advanced countries. “Economic indicators have improved as w

Homeplus, the nation’s No. 2 supermarket chain, said Wednesday that it is considering entering the network services market as a mobile virtual network operator or MVNO. The company, owned by U.K. retailer giant Tesco, said it has started negotiations to borrow networks from telecom carriers at wholesale prices so that they can offer mobile services at cheaper rates. “We are gauging contract conditions with SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus,” a Homeplus official said. “If the contract is finalized, we

Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry smartphone, which lost its No. 4 spot to Apple Inc. in the U.S. in the first half, fell further behind the iPhone maker and market leader Samsung Electronics Co. after new models failed to attract enough users.RIM’s share of U.S. mobile-phone subscribers in the three months through November dropped to 6.5 percent from 7.1 percent in the previous quarter, research firm ComScore Inc. said. Samsung increased to 25.6 percent from 25.3 percent, and Apple consolida

But Samsung, Hyundai, LG buck the trend by posting higher operating incomeKorea’s major companies are expected to post slower earnings in the fourth quarter of last year, hurt by slowing demand amid growing worries over the eurozone debt crisis, data showed Wednesday.According to brokerages’ estimates compiled by financial information provider FnGuide, Korea’s top-ranked business groups such as Samsung are likely to achieve lower-than-expected profits in the forthcoming earnings season. Key fact

The market share of semi-large cars such as the Hyundai Grandeur surged past 10 percent for the first time last year, shrinking that of midsize vehicles.Passenger cars sold by the nation’s five automakers are classified into six segments in terms of size and engine displacement in Korea ― large, semi-large, midsize, semi-midsize, compact and mini-cars.The semi-large segment is comprised of the Grandeur, Renault Samsung SM7, Kia K7 and GM Korea’s Alpheon, which accounted for 10.8 percent of all n